Captain Phillips

Until now i have never managed to form a solid opinion on Tom Hanks. Sometimes I liked him and sometimes I really couldn't stand him at all. I hated Forest Gump and the Polar Express and unfortunately they were the first two films that I had seen with him in but since them I have seen a few others such as You've Got Mail, Saving Private Ryan and now Captain  Phillips and those last three films have convinced me to like Tom Hanks and appreciate his skill and craft.

Overall I was impressed with Tom Hanks. I felt that his character talked too much in certain circumstances but you could see the emotion in his eyes and there was more than just fear, there was pain, sadness, anxiety and at times anger. Sometimes when directors make a film based on a real story they have this habit of making the protagonist some sort of silent hero that rarely says anything or the complete opposite and they say way too much all the time and end up being beaten up pretty badly if they manage to survive. There were moments when i thought that he was lucky to be living at that point and that probably most pirates when they ended up in that situation would've just killed the prisoner and taken their chances.

What I found interesting more than anything else was the part of the pirate captain. There I saw a man that was lost, he couldn't make up his mind what to do and didn't seem interested in killing anyone unless he had to, it's just that he didn't realise when he actually had to so he in his part ended up in prison and his friends ended up dead. You felt like if the film had gone on for another hour then the character probably would have ended up turning and becoming a good guy but i am glad that they didn't drag it out for another hour as it was almost perfect the way that it was.

Between the two of them, they put on one hell of a show and personally I feel that both of them deserved awards for their performances.

The Shining

Here Comes Jonny!

Jack Nicholson does a fantastic job at becoming a psychopath. I have only previously seen him in One Flew Over A Cuckoos nest and The Bucket List. I thought that he was pretty weird in both of those films but I thought that he was even weirder in this film.
This was a Stephen King Book, published in 1977 and then turned into a film. To the Friends lovers out there, was this the book/ film that Joey kept in the freezer?

I loved everything about this film. I loved the way that it was cut and pasted together and I really loved the kid and the way that he communicated with Tony. It wasn't the scariest film in the world but it had a solid story line and was built up really well.
The Kid should be given an award for his performance and I even really liked the mother in this film. I liked everything about it from start to finish.
Some people are really good at convincing you that they are psychopaths and Jack Nicholson is one of them.

Aliens

I kinda remember watching the first film and being really bored by it earlier in the year so it was really tough to motivate myself.

The first thing that I feel needs to be said is a huge well done to the woman from Avatar. It's good to know that she had a career before Avatar. I hated avatar so i think that she ruined her career by making that film but at least she proved that she had talent before she worked on that overrated, way too long, blue version of Pocahontas.

Aliens takes a while to get going but if I recall correctly, I felt the same about the first film. The concept is good (maybe not good enough to make 4 or however many films that they made out of it) but the action doesn't really get going until about an hour in.

What I liked about the film is that it doesn't have a huge cast to it. In a lot of modern films we see a cast list of at least 30 people. It's refreshing to see a small cast list because it means that the plot isn't too complicated. As a member of the audience I like to be able to easily follow something so that i don't miss something critical in the performance whilst trying to work out what the story is really about.

I liked this film, but as I have already said- instead of being two and a half hours  long it should have been one and a half hours long.

Gravity

I swear that all Saundra Bullock had to do for this film was turn up, breathe heavily and stare at the camera because that is all that she seems to do for ninety percent of this film.

The music that keeps cutting off to build up suspense is played in something like every other scene and is used way too much. The story line is simple: Astronauts get stuck in space, one dies and the other one has to find a way of making it back to Earth but the rest of the hour and a half is made up with loud, deep breathing and some overplayed music- honestly, i don't know why they didn't just play Wagner as that is known for building up suspense and never resolving anything, it would've been perfect!

I think that this is one of the biggest, more recent, wastes of time, effort, talent and money that the film industries have produced!

We all know that Saundra Bullock can act because we have seen her in Miss Congeniality and we all know that George Clooney can act because we have seen Ocean's Eleven. If you had not seen anything else with these two mega film stars in then you would think that neither of these guys could act at all and that you could replace them with teenagers and they would do a whole load better.

I don't know how this film made it onto my list because for it to make it onto my list it must have either been something that i really wanted to see (and i didn't) or on one of the top 100 films lists from somewhere like Empire.

Am I completely failing to miss something major here, or is it just a really rubbish film?

The Raid: Redemption

Another film that features more martial arts than anything else. A whole bunch of special branch cops go to a hit on some big apartment block and two guys from the original special branch make it out alive.

Iko Uwais is simply fantastic as Rama. His display or martial arts is wonderful and what is even better is that he isn't using the same kind of martial arts that have already been used time after time. This style of martial arts is Silat which is found in Indonesia and therefore is not something that i had watched when i watched Ip Man or any other martial arts film so far.

It was really easy to keep up with this film, even when i had to leave it for a few minutes because all they were doing was trying to get the main guy inside the 40 story building and then get him and themselves out again. The best part is at the end when Iko Uwais teams up with his brother and both of them almost get themselves killed by this one guy but in the end they manage to beat him and achieve their mission.

You kinda new that he was going to come out of it alive but even so, nothing should be taken away from the film. Every action scene is choreographed perfectly and it makes for really easy watching. Basically, tones of people die.

Judge Dredd

Sylvester Stallone keeps popping up everywhere at the moment.
I know that they made a film called Dredd with Karl Urban in but this post is on the original Sylvester Stallone film made back in 1995.

Stallone is really good at playing the silent almost 'thug like' guy in a lot of films but what he doesn't ever really seem to pull off is the romancy part at the end of the films. He was almost perfect for the part. As I just said, right at the end when the woman kisses him it kinda doesn't feel right but apart from that he was perfect as Dredd.

The costumes were kinda hilarious but were probably seen as something iconic in 1995. The shoulder pads were way too huge.

I liked the idea behind the story and am quite looking forward to watching Dredd once I have finished this film challenge. It almost has a minority report feel to it but I know that this film was made first so it's probably better to say that Minority Report has a Judge Dredd feel to it.

The best line from this film comes when two women are fighting each other and one says to the other 'bitch' and the other replies 'that's Judge bitch' and then headbutts her. I laughed so much at that point and just wanted to scream 'you go girl'. I do love it when a woman has a great line in a film.
Speaking of the women, they were fantastic. You can tell that I haven't got IMDB open because I am not using their names (like I used to do). I don't think that I have seen anything else with either of the women in, as i didn't recognise them it is highly unlikely that their names are going to stick in my memory. There were times when you thought that the character was typically characterised as being weak but both of them had some great moments.

I think that this is going to be another film that I end up watching several times over. It is easy to watch and very likable. Some times you have days when you need a classic action film and then it will be time to watch Judge Dredd!

Jaws

Duh Duh... Duh Duh... Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh Duh... JAWS!

I think that there are a lot of people that find it difficult to be scared by films that are so dated that the graphics just look like red paint on a piece of plastic but still, we will give it a go.

This is a Spielberg film so I shall try not to do it any discredit or show it any disrespect. I can imagine what the effect would have been on the audience when this film was released. Firstly, the music is awesome, the idea to just have two notes a semi tone apart for the theme of the villain was genius and probably one of the easiest things to score out. Secondly, there are some fantastic moments when you have to think that if you were growing up in that time, you would probably have been screaming when the guy had loads of blood spurting from his stomach and other places. I can see the effect that it would have had on people and i'm kinda gutted that i wasn't old enough to watch it when it was first released.

The thing that makes watching it hard for me is how obviously plastic the shark is. I think that the shark probably would have looked more real if it had been shot in black and white just because you wouldn't be able to see so clearly the definite plastic look that surrounds the shark.
I loved how the shark explodes at the end. It's not like they just shot it, it actually blows up from the interior out and the entire shot is of the sea surrounding them all covered in bits of shark and lots of red paint  which is kinda cool. Spielberg clearly had had enough of this pathetic dying that most actors did around that time and just decided to blow the character to smithereens.

You may be wondering why i haven't mentioned any of the actors? The truth is that i wasn't that impressed by them. They did their job but they didn't blow me away and at the same time they didn't bore me either. I haven't remembered their names and I could look them up on IMDB but I see no point as i am likely to retain their names afterwards.

I could watch this film over and over again though, just for the ending.

Dracula

As a tribute to the departed legend Christopher Lee The horror of Dracula is the feature of tonight's post. It was already on my list so i didn't just add it in because i wanted to watch one of his films.

Christopher Lee was excellent. I really like him as Dracula (although I think that i still prefer him as scaramanger)and thought that he did a super job of being a vampire. There weren't any moments where i burst out laughing at the acting (which is surprising) and so that made me very happy.
Supported by Peter Cushing, the two of them acting against each other is fantastic. I am a huge fan of Peter Cushing for his work as Alfred in the older Batman films such as Batman and Robin. Naturally he was younger in this film and really pulled off the character of the husband well.

This is a fantastic but slightly dated film. This is a film to watch purely to admire the acting. The technical stuff is limited but it was still a master class performance from all involved in the making of the film.

Next up is JAWS!

Leon

A somewhat startling film in places that makes you question what goes through some people's heads. Leon is brought to life by mesmerizing performances from Gary Oldman, Natalie Portman and Jean Reno. Gary Oldman is the pick of the punch, so much so that it wasn't until the last few scenes that I actually realised that it was Gary Oldman. It wasn't that his face or general appearance had changed, it's just that his performance was so different and engaging that i stopped thinking about who it was playing those parts and just allowed myself to enjoy the film.
I couldn't believe it when, after the film had hit the two hour mark i suddenly thought- that's Gary Oldman! I had seen his name on the cast list and had been wondering when he was going to turn up, not actually realising that he had appeared at the start of the film as well and I just hadn't clicked that it was him. Single handedly he carried this film, he was a head and shoulders above the others in terms of acting (and the others were good).

Jean Reno (whom up to now I only knew from the terrible remake of 'The Pink Panther') was very surprising. He was that dark mysterious character that didn't really come to life until the end when he showed that he was able to care for someone and some of the scenes between Natalie Portman and Reno were quite moving. The character had morals (even if they were slightly questionable at times) and stuck to them. These morals were really what displayed Reno's quality as an actor. The transformation between almost inhuman and suddenly very compassionate and almost classically human was transcendent.

Now we move on to the actor with all the questionable activities associated with her character. This film is really what kick started Natalie Portman's career. A 12 year old Natalie Portman stars in this film and the first shot we get of her is when she is sitting outside her door smoking. She smokes throughout this film and as a spectator I immediately questioned the director. It may be the norm for young people to be smoking from an early age but in 1994 it wasn't and certainly we shouldn't be encouraging twelve year olds to smoke and chain smoke. Portman throughout most of the film is either smoking or swearing. There is also a scene where she dresses up and sleeps in the same bed as Leon. In the scripted version they actually become loves. The script is quite shocking as most of us are aware that pedophilia is not something that should be encouraged and is entirely not acceptable. I think that Portman's parents had that cut out of the film and rightly so as no twelve year old girl (actor or not) should be allowed or encouraged to sleep with an adult.
I don't want to take anything away from Natalie Portman as she was fantastic in Leon the professional but it was a film that I personally feel that she shouldn't have made. I don't think that any child should have been scripted in, the way that she was.

Needless to say that overall she has done very well for herself and made a good batch of films (and a few interesting ones as well).

Kingdom Of Heaven

A film with Orlando Bloom in which he doesn't just stare at the camera and isn't a blacksmith.

I think that I put this film on the list because it had Liam Neeson in it and I probably hadn't realised that it also had Orlando Bloom in it but lets give him a fresh start and see what he can do.
I wasn't impressed. I didn't see anything different about him in this film. Instead of a bow he waves a sword around but he didn't particularly strike me as a strong leader or even a real leader at tall, more just the sidekick. I was waiting for that moment which would make him shine, the moment where he stands up and says actually I can act and I am more than just an arrogant portrayal of the widely considered to be attractive man that i am. I didn't get it. In the entire three hours I didn't get any signal from him that he could act. Halfway through I thought that it was going to happen but it didn't.

Ah well... maybe he'll get another chance but i guess there is a reason as to why his acting career is practically non-existence. Two major films, messed up both chances and now rarely makes a film.

Let's move on. I don't need to say about Neeson and wouldn't be able to say anything that hasn't already been said before. It's another master class performance from him and nice to see him doing something slightly different. I love actors that challenge themselves and take on different roles. He is a wonderful example to the world of how acting should be done.

Now on to the film. This film is a three hour long about the third crusade. Personally I felt that they probably could've cut an hour and it still would have made a good film but that's up to the director i guess. Unfortunately it was a film that felt like it was three hours long. When you are in the cinema or even the theater, generally you don't tend to realise that you have been sitting there for the best part of two and half hours or so and that is because you are enjoying the film/ play and in no way does it feel like it is dragging on. This film is one where if i had seen it in the cinema then it would've joined the hobbit part three and part two as films that i would have to watch whilst playing a drinking game because I become restless, I know that they are going on for a long time and i want them to end. A film like that is somewhat boring and that is how i felt about kingdom of heaven.

What did you think of it?

He's coming for you

This post is on A Nightmare On Elm Street and the well known Freddy Krueger.
I watched the remake that was done in 2010 and was directed by Michael Bay. I didn't realise that it had been remade but i kinda prefer the remakes of horror movies anyway as they make them more dramatic and actually scary.

I just loved that it was the same guy who was Krueger both times around. Keeping the villain the same really helps the continuity and keeps a similar feel to the atmosphere that had been created in 1984.

This is probably one of the best horror films that I have watched. There was story to it and not just killing, it was exciting (unlike Saw) and actually scary (unlike the wonderful; the silence of the lambs). I did realise that bon jovi's famous anthem 'living on a prayer' works as an effective piece of backing music if you use just the synth, drums and bass part!

One, Two Freddy's coming for you...

I thought that the acting was brilliant. Reading the back of the case and seeing that some of the cast were in twilight put me off a lot but each of them was fantastic and looked like they were actually fighting a delusion in their head instead of just looking slightly shocked all the time (like Daniel Radcliffe in The Woman in Black). The ending was by far the best part of the film. Just when you think that it's all over...

I'll say no more. If you're into horror then it's right up there at the top as one of the best horror movies created. If you're not into horror movies (like me) then probably don't watch it. 

Can you take the heat

Al Pacino, Robert Di Niro, Val Kilmer and Natalie Portman star in this typical gangster film.

A young Natalie Portman is proving that she can do what most children cant... Act and not only that but keep it going throughout her life and make a career out of it. Once again she is flawless and perfect as she can be.

Di Niro faces off against Pacino in a thrilling battle of will and criminal minds. There are a few battles that are absolutely priceless to watch and this is one of them! Every fantastic opinion we have developed over time about Di Niro is thoroughly well-deserved but can it beat the reputation of Al Pacino?
I think that the answer is yes. I loved this film and I loved all the guys involved. Val Kilmer is fantastic as a supporting guy and really pulls off the somewhat brad Pitt look that he has undertaken. T
his is a wonderful film to watch and easy to watch as well. Well made and very wonderful developed, heat is all about taking the pressure. I can, can you?