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berty2001
Reviews
The Strangers (2008)
Not bad start but descends into averageness
What started out as a good, bare bones thriller/chiller, quickly becomes like every other slasher movie.
SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW.
It all starts off well, and is very spooky. More a haunted house movie than slasher. However, it sees the director/writing didn't have the balls to follow this up and brings on the face to face, slasher type confrontations. How much scarier would it have been if they strangers had never actually attacked, just tormented then disappeared, leaving Liv and Scott mentally damaged, if not physically. This would have played up to the idea more of it being just a game, bit of entertainment for the strangers.
Also, reading some of the other comments, people say how the characters behave rationally. I can't agree with this. Liv and Scott have a shotgun and it's two against three. Not bad odds. Just go out into the field with nothing around and wait for them to approach, then...BAM! Shot gun to the head. The strangers never have an extra weapons that the couple couldn't have got.
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
Better than 12 but too much going on
Despite everyone slagging off Ocean's 12, I quite liked it. It was fun and silly, as opposed to the fun and cool of Ocean's 11. 13 definitely goes back to the first's style. However, it never really felt like it got going.
Ocean's 11 was simple idea - steal money from a vault in a complex way. Ocean's 13 was similar in that its back in Vegas, they're stealing money but this time the stakes are higher with revenge on the cards.
Spoilers However, despite it having this stronger motive, you never really felt that everyone was really up for it. The plan has too many aspects to it (the fixed tables, the jewels, the reviewer, Andy Garcia, the earthquake, the Mexican factory) and so lacks focus and a really good pay off.
As for Garcia, he's barely in it. I'm not sure why the felt they could write Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones out in one line but have to keep Garcia in (answer: money).
However, apart from its faults, it was better than 12, but not as good as 11. The revenge aspect does ad really drive to the story, but it ends up pushing it off in too many directions.
Mechenosets (2006)
A Bout de Soufflé starring Wolverine
Despite the title, The Sword Bearer, and the DVD cover (action/herioc poses of The Sword Bearer) this is not a super hero film.
(Minor Spoilers) It follows the tale of Sasha, The Sword Bearer, who is cursed with having a retractable sword in his forearm. Cool you say, but no, this is real life. If you had this power as a child could you control it when, say, faced by a mad man, or when your mum's boyfriend is beating her. And if you don't control it, how do you cope with being a two time killer at the age of 12.
This essentially is where Sasha is when we meet him. Wandering aimlessly after another killing (much like A Bout de Soufflé). He then meet Katya, and the pair fall instantly in love, providing Sasha with a real reason to live and try and changes his ways. However, his past is still chasing him, in the form of two police officers.
That is essentially the story, and there is virtually no action on screen, though a lot if suggested.
I really like this movie. Unlike many Hollywood 'super hero' films, we get very little back story, there is no bad guy (unless you count The Sword Bearer himself) abut there is a lot of heart and good character development.
Worth checking out if you can find it.
Confetti (2006)
Missing one vital ingredient - laughs
Confetti is a good film, just not a great comedy. Done in the style of the mockumentry (think Best in Show meets the Office), it brings together people from some of the UK's top comedy shows (Spaced, Green Wing, Royal Family, The Office etc).
However, the problem is, non of them are the stars. Apart from the ever-excellent Martin Freeman, non of these people are stars. Most have played either bit parts in better sit-coms (Spaced), or have starred in average ones (Green Wing).
Though Confetti has a good story and a lot of heart it misses a lot of the laughs. Which it shouldn't. Jimmy Carr, who is always funny in an unlikeable way, doesn't seem to be let free here, even though it is supposedly improvised.
This is a running problems in Confetti. They have hired a lot of funny people, but have tried to get them to focus more on the character and less on their small screen persona's. Unfortunately, their small screen persona's are funny, while there big screen character lack laughs.
This is not to say there aren't any laughs. But it all to often feels a bit too much like a reality TV programme, instead of a mock-reality TV programme, especially when it comes to Freeman and Jessica Stevenson's (also on top form) family. The uncomfortableness here is not funny, unlike David Brent's in the office - it's just annoying.
It does have a lot of heart, and the two gay wedding planners are, inevitably, the highlight. However, if the producers and directors had told the actors to be funny, instead of act funny, it might have been a different story.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Only about homosexuality as much as Romeo and Juliet about family feud
Though this has been described as a 'gay western', I think the this is misleading. What it really is, is a romance set in western America. It is only about homosexuality as much as Romeo and Juliet is about a family feud, or Casablanca is about the war. These things are just obstacles that the couple need to get over if they are to be together. In that sense, Brokeback is an old fashioned love story.
And what a story. Beautifully shot (though it does fail to totally convince that the mountain itself is as isoltated as they would have you believe), Ang Lee has in a sense remade Crouching Tiger, or at least the ChowYun Fat/Michelle Yeoh story. It is about two people whose love each other, but one who's honour will not let them be together.
The biggest surprise in this movie is Heath Ledger. His performance is brilliant. Not showy, which ,means that he may not win an Oscar, but it stays with you long after the stunning landscape cinematography and western score.
--Smaller Spoiler--
Although over long (ending when Ennis goes to Jack's family homes would have been perfect), it is definitely worth seeing, if only once.
Sky High (2002)
Kitamrua displays usual style and faults
As with many of Ryuhei Kitamura's film, Sky High displays plenty of great ideas (a serial killer ripping people's hearts out, the gates of Rage, where murdered people go and are given three choice - heaven, earth, or hell), an genre bending story (sword play, horror, sci-fi, love story, serial killer) and plenty of visual style. However, Sky High also fall foul of Ryuhei Kitamura's usual faults. For this type of film, and the way it is shot, it is just too long, running at over two hours. Kitamura tries to give the story depth and meaning (failing most the time), when it should be a great popcorn flick with less depth. Take his two major success - Versus and Azumi. Here there is very little plot, just great action. Alive, another of Kitamura's films, which is very similarly themed to Sky High, also suffers these faults. Given the right script, Kitamura will make a genuinely great film (he almost did it with Versus), but until then, he need someone to come and cut his film down.
Dead Man's Shoes (2004)
Great performance move this into brilliance
A brilliant movie combining horror, mystery and revenge flick. Like Taxi Driver in Northern England.
A brilliant performance from Paddy Considine (check out his scene in the pub at the start).
The brutality is mainly suggested, though there are some scenes that make for uncomfortable viewing.
What Meadow's does best is to focus on the group that has committed the sin (drug dealers who have bully Considines simple brother) and actually draws some sympathy from evil characters. He also asks to judge Considines revenger and his motives at the end. However, he is never in doubt as to who is the good guys and who the bad.
Wolf Creek (2005)
Good but not great
It seems a lot of these 'great' horror movies these days are more based on making you feel sick than actually scared.
Wolf Creek falls into this category. Don't get me wrong, it does it very well but it doesn't seem to be a 'horror' movie. Put it this way - after I cam out I felt a little sick in the stomach by some of the imagery, but didn't feel scared.
(**Small spoilers**) It use a trick that a lot of modern horror movies use in that people get into situations where they know something bad is going to happen to them and they are helpless to do anything about it (the guy on the hook in TCM remake, the 'head on a stick' in this). It seems a little manipulative, but then again ,what horror isn't.
One of the big problems with Wolf Creek is that its set up of characters is lost in the second half. The first hour we see real people, acting like real people and you get drawn to them. in the second half they act like the worst horror movie clichés ever seen. Take the following:
**Spoilers** 1. After she has shot the bad guy in the neck and he passes out, why the hell does she not just bash his head in, instead of running.
2. Why do they have to go back and get the car, when later she says that she knows where the road is and that they could easily have just hidden for the night and ran back to town in the morning? (which is what the guy does).
3. Why does she stop to look through the video when time is of the essence? 4. Why can't they find a half decent place to hide? As to all those who say best horror movie in past twenty years, or top three, they obviously haven't seen that many horror movie (TCM remake was better horror, though worse characters, Blair Witch the same, ring, eye, and these are just the past few years).
Depsite all my whinging, it was a good film, and is better than a lot of modern horror movies (haunting remake, anything featuring spooky young kids and over the top CGI - it has no place in horror, ghost ship etc). It is well shot, well paced (until the end which comes far too soon, just as things are getting going) and well acted.
Chakushin ari (2003)
An odd choice for Miike
One Missed call seems like an odd choice for one of the world's most innovative directors.
It feels like he has been hired by some Hollywood producer to make a Japanese horror movie the way Hollywood sees them. Takashi Miike feels reigned in, putting out another version of the Ring or Ju-On.
<Some mild Spoilers>
It's not to say it is a bad film. It has some genuinely scary moments, some additions to the scary woman/techno horror sub-genre such as the live TV exorcism and the occasional flourishes of Mikke's funny side, such as an invisible spirit taking a girls arm, breaking it, wrapping it around her neck and choking her with it till both head and arm come off.
Why miike chose this project is beyond me. Maybe he saw Ring and Ju-On and thought he could do it better. It's not better, but a decent addition to the j-horror genre.
7/10.
Withnail and I (1987)
One of few films genuinely worthy of 10/10
In my long time rating films for IMDb I have not yet given any full marks. However, I feel that Withnail & I is truly deserving of this.
I'm not saying that it is a perfectly made movie, with performances that cannot be beaten, but it one of only a handful of films that I could watch over and over again and never ever tire of it. It's one of those films, which I happen to have on video, and can just slot in in at any point in the movie and watch for half an hour or an hour and really enjoy.
#Spoiler Warning#
One of the earlier reviews said that it was tragic, but wasn't sure whether it was meant to be. to me it has one of the sadest, most tragic endings ever.
The thought of Withnail being left to cope without I (or Marwood) is frightening. More so as it is based on the writer/director's own experinces and people he knew (yes there is actually a withnail).
Also, the theme of your friends leaving you alone to pursue greater things could be the reason why it so popular amongst university students (that and the vast amount of booze drank in it.) It is a film about the fun times at the end of a friendship, mirrored in the film by it being the end of the 60's.
It's a film that has many stand out lines which come over brilaintly the first time, but it is the other less well known lines that do it for me. When uncle monty says "It is a sad time in one's life when you say to yourself 'I will never play the Dane'" is a classic.
Needs to be owned and watch, and not just when you're drunk or at a party, but when you fancy a laugh.
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
One of the best comedies ever
I must admit I do have a soft spot for comedies of this sort (New York, jazzy soundtrack, set around autumn/winter, starring Meg Ryan), but in all honesty this film would appeal to anyone who truly loves cinema.
It's not that I love chick flicks (as they are commonly known by those who don't know). My favourite genres are horror and Chinese action, but there's just something about new york comedies that draw me in.
Both the stars are perfect with Billy crystal in his career best role. always funny, but not often this reserved Crystal makes us like what is essentially 9at least to begin with ) unlikealbe character.
The witty script by Nora Ephron is among her best for comedy (though Sleepless has the better love story)with Reiner perfectly capturing the feeling of the city.
almost perfect comedy 9/10.