Memento

The most psychologically confuzzaling film that to my knowledge I have ever watched.
Memento is all about a guy that can't remember what he has done after his wife died. He is out for revenge and manages to kill the guy that murdered his wife but the film is shot in bits and pieces, flashing in and out of memories and real life clips to try and piece the puzzle together. This film is not a film that you can watch while multitasking, so if you are going to watch it then make sure that you pay attention to it.

Guy Pierce stars in a film with a very small cast. He is a killer, a profiler and a guy that can't remember most things. His flawless acting never falters in this film. I think that this is only the third film that i have seen him in (The Count of Monte Cristo and Priscilla Queen of the desert being the other two) and although this isn't the one that i enjoyed the most, this is the one that really displays his talent to the world.

I cannot really describe the film so you are going to have to watch it for yourself and see if it has the same effect on your mind as it did on mine.

The Blues Brothers 2000

Dan Akroyd and a host of big names such as BB King, Eric Clapton, Ray Charles and Frank Oz combine together to bring a musical sensation.

If you didn't guess that this was a musical then you need to make sure that you read the title of the film before watching it!
Dan Akroyd surprised me with his singing abilities and his cool, calm manner that was not shown in Ghostbusters. Dressing like something out of Men in Black, or lets get it right- Men in Black probably ripped this film off with the costume design, part of the temptation is to look at the first shot of Akroyd and think that he is trying to portray a mafia boss- he isn't. Akroyd matches a style of Blues, the style that his band pull off which involves dressing smartly and wearing dark glasses.
On the other hand, we have BB King and Eric Clapton that always dress very casually and let their guitar skills do most of the talking.

For the music- this is a brilliant film. For the acting, it's still great. Having Aretha Franklin actually feature in the film and sing RESPECT is totally genius. Stealing a police commanders wallet to buy a car is also another nice touch.

If you're in to musicals and especially in to jazz, blues, soul and R and B then this is a truly awesome musical. If you're not- don't watch it, add it to the list just on top of diamond girls and Ray for musicals to never watch, along with Chicago, High Society and the sound of music.

Who You Gonna Call?

If you haven't already guessed from the title, todays film was Ghostbusters. The film was made in 1981 so i feel like i am progressing through the ranks of the film making industry by advancing 40 years with this film.

Billy Murray is the name that everyone associates with this film and it is his name that appears on the credits first but i will remember more the guy with the really low voice for his voice than Billy Murray. Bill Murray was not the stand out character even though he was obviously the main character. He was ever so slightly outclassed by a deep voice!

Now we come to the graphics and animation- lets face it, it's out dated and not what we have grown accustom to seeing due to things like Inception, Avatar and even (dare i say it) the Matrix which all display amazing filming techniques and in some cases groundbreaking technology. We have to watch the film and laugh at the slightly robotic ghosts that are moving around but that is not a reason to not love the film and enjoy it.

When you're a kid and all you want to do is run around, make things and shoot things then this film should be the film (along with Despicable Me) that encourages you and inspires you to do so. All you need is a degree is science, some weird scientific technology, a fair amount of money and some technical language that to less educated people sounds really smart and you have got everything you need to be a ghost buster.
Kicked out of the university because the university got bored with their running around after hypothetical ghosts, Billy Murray, Dan Akroyd (Ray) and the guy with the really low voice move into the guy with the really low voice's house and kick start the ghostbusters business.
What makes this film so genius is the theme that everyone knows that runs in and out of the movie. Ghostbusters isn't in any way scary, you laugh with it and enjoy it for what it is but most of all you have to love the fact that someone managed to successfully mash up the theme tune with ACDC's Thunderstruck and you can listen for yourself right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiH1wNmZTII

Citizen Khane

The 1941 story about Charles Foster Kane.
Black and White (obviously) and  very much a typical film of that time. Citizen Kane tells about the life of a man who was at one time very much loved in America and thought to have the world at his feet until he did something scandalous and sacrificed it all for someone/something.

I found it a hard film to follow. It was as if i was listening to a news bulletin with little clips of his life in between. I wouldn't call it a film- more of a documentary about his life. If they had 10 o'clock news on BBC back in 1941 then that is what i thought that i was watching as i watched this film last night.

I have to admit that i find black and white movies with talking in much harder to watch than silent movies. In silent movies the acting has to be superb to get the story across to the audience. There are very few films that i have seen in black and white which have made me want to watch them over and over again. There is something missing, i don't know if it is sometimes the genius of someone's facial expressions or the quality of filming but something within the move to colour technology has made it almost impossible to really enjoy black and white movies. The more i watch them, the more i think that the likes of Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom would be well suited to those type of films- films for people who look pretty but can't actually act at all.

If any of you have seen this film then please tell me what you thought of it.

Beowulf

So now we turn towards Danish films. Last year we watched the Swedish the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and now we watch Beowulf.
The special effects to make the characters faces look more comic like and less human like are awesome. I would say that this is a step behind Tintin but it still represents a shift in animation and effects and where they have now come to.
Anthony Hopkins stars in this film and as i have said before-with the exception of Thor 2, he doesn't really make bad films. I love him in everything that i have seen him in and I am hopping that this continues as there are a few other films that i have yet to watch.

I do love how Beowulf sounds really- i want to say East London but i'm going to go more for sounding like Idris Elba than typically Danish. I actually know someone that is Danish so i am not just making it up based on stereotype- these guys couldn't sound more rough English if they tried.
I am wondering how much joy Ray Winstone got out of spending most of his time filming wearing practically nothing (if anything). There are the odd scenes where he just takes off his clothes out of somewhat arrogance.

If i had to rate this film then i would stick it on the once watched don't bother watching again pile. It's a good enough film but it's just not one that is good enough to watch over and over again. There is nothing truly gripping about it and whilst Anthony Hopkins is great in his role as the king (which seems to be becoming a regular role for him in films), his performance alone cannot hold together something that doesn't really have a leg to stand on. There are much worse films and this was certainly not a waste of the two hours that i spent watching it but i wouldn't say that it was the most profitable thing that i have done this week.

Butch Cassidy

Turning back the time from films that have been released in the last few years to a film that was made in 1965.
The poster that used to hang down the corridor of the English corridor in my school was of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Starring at the poster for years whilst waiting for my lessons gave me a burning desire to watch this film. I have no idea why we didn't put it on the list for the challenge in its first year but at least now i have made sure that I got it on the one for this year.

Robert Redford stars in this cowboy gangster film about Butch Cassidy and his gang and he is fantastic. I particularly liked the scene where Paul Newman is challenged to a knife fight and there are no rules so he kinda makes them up as he goes along.

The scenery is somewhat familiar of Blazing Saddles. Old western films (not that you can really call blazing saddles that) all have the same kind of scenery.
This is a great film. There are no super close ups that was used past the point of obsession in Les Miserables and there are no wayward misc out of focus shots either. Everything fits perfectly and every shot allows the message to be delivered with ease.

See you all next time.

Iron Man 3

I have it on good authority that this film is better than both Captain America 2 and Thor 2, so lets see if he was right!
He was...

Neither of Captain America 2 or Thor 2 are really worth watching. Iron Man three is better than both of them but not as good as Iron Man. This film is desperately trying to end the Iron Man saga whilst connecting Iron Man to Avengers and trying to amend for the second film which was terrible.
I have to give it to Gwyneth Paltrow because she was absolutely superb throughout the film. She is the one person that has really managed to keep in character in every film and has managed to be consistently superb throughout.
There's not much to say about this film. Typical Iron Man has the typical characteristics of the film and Guy Pearce has his typical evil character sneer about him.

I know that this is a short post but if you are an Iron Man fan that you will be able to understand what i mean by saying that it is a typical Iron Man film. The action scenes are the same and Don Cheadle puts in a decent performance but his character has been somewhat subsided since the departure of Terence Howard due to him thinking that he was better than he was.

Not the best film in the marvel marathon but better than Iron Man two and if this is a sign of the future then Thor 3 and Captain America 3 (lets hope that they don't make them) will be better than their predecessors.

Thor 2

So who loved Thor?
Who was expecting Thor 2 to be really good because of Avengers and Captain America etc?
It wasn't.
It was better than Iron Man 2 and Captain America 2 but it really wasn't worth the effort. From the moment that it started i knew that it wasn't going to be worth the effort. Sometimes storylines from the start scream out at you and when it goes on about some ugly looking guy called Malakith i just sighed. This was just another film about revenge that was trying to give Thor his own story away from Avengers but it just didn't really happen.
There wasn't enough drama, enough logic to it, there wasn't anything to give it a boost or a push from the start.
I take my hat off to the performances of each of the cast because in their own way they were all outstanding, it's just that it was the wrong film to do.
I loved everything about Thor, the way that it was filmed and the sound and lighting and that is true of this film, the production team was obviously the same and so the actual filming was perfect.
Often i feel with films of this genre that there isn't enough in them, not enough to keep you on the edge of your seat or even to keep you moving. Sometimes the film just sorta, stands still in next to nothingness and that isn't anything to do with the way that it was shot, it's just to do with the way that the script was written and the film was directed. There is a time for those moments and it's at the end of the film and not really before.

I do apologise because i am not trying to turn this into a rant but i get the feeling that this is what it has turned in to. Thor fans don't be too disheartened by it, the actors are great and there is potential to make more films but having had Thor refuse the throne i'm not sure where they will go. Who knows, it could be an exciting part of Thor history that we are soon about to witness!

Funny Face

I couldn't help myself. Those that have been following this blog from the very start will know that I have a weakness for musicals, especially old ones with Fred Astaire. Having discovered a love for Audrey Hepburn in breakfast at Tiffany's to defeat my intolerance of her in my fair lady, funny face has come to reunite my love of dancing and Fred Astaire musicals with the love of Audrey Hepburn films.

I could spend forever going on about those two but instead my interest was stolen by the supporting women who is in charge of the fashion and she has a fabulous voice that is really strong. All the light has been shed on the duo of Astaire and Hepburn but it was the older woman that stole the show. Holding her own against Fred Astaire in a trio is one huge task but not only does she do it but she also manages to vocally dominate and displace Hepburn in their trio's. For singers out there reading this they will appreciate just how hard it is to match a male voice blow for blow in a vocal duet unless they are opera singers but here we have found one woman who is more than capable!

Nothing needs to be said about the choreography as even the sequences made to look bad actually require more skill than most people gain from their street dance lessons or even ballroom dancing lessons until you make it towards the big stages and dancing school.

The settings in Paris are absolutely beautiful. Churches and nature with the right lighting work wonders for the soul, making the audience calm and very relaxed.

There's a day for watching this film and it comes in August, on a sunny day, about 20 degrees with a bottle of red wine (my birthday).

There's a hilarious song sung by a young woman about how she stabbed her lover cos she hated him and then she decided that she loved him and now she is confused. I know that just reading it you could be thinking 'what has she been taking when she wrote this on the blog' but when you watch it you will understand why... I hope.

Watching this film has made me very happy.

I loved it all, including the book store scene and the marvelous line about finding somewhere boring and insane... A bookshop in Greenwich.

On Stranger Tides

I've been avoiding this film since it came out because i was of the opinion that they really couldn't make a decent fourth film given where they had left the third film. I wasn't sure about Penelope Cruz when it was released and so i avoided it just in case it was going to ruin my opinion of the films forever.

So you can deduce from this that the film wasn't as bad as i was expecting it to be. Somehow they managed to keep the good characters from the first three and just get rid of the rubbish characters in Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan.
The introduction of the religious bloke was a little bit hit and miss and really they could have done without him cos he was a bit of a waste of breath, space and money. The rubbish between him and a mermaid just made me want to laugh.

Now on to the real talk!

There's nothing to say about Sparrow that hasn't been said. Johnny Depp is Jack Sparrow- there is no other and there are not enough words to describe his performance in this role.
Same again for Geoffrey Rush, although i really did love the addition of the wooden leg and the change in his character from pirate to honorable man of the law.

It was great to see the ridiculous fight scenes and means of escape that only Jack Sparrow can pull off back in the films as this is something that has been lacking in my life. Location was once again excellent and a change of scenery was long awaited.

Not bad but nothing beats the first film!

12 years a slave

I've finally found that i don't like and it's 12 years a slave. I don't like the topic at all.
I know that there are loads of people that will complain about me saying it because it is part of our history but there have been a few of these films recently and my mind can't take any more of that nature. I'm not saying that the film isn't good- it's really good but i just don't want to ever watch it again.
I don't have a violent nature and i just don't understand why some people are violent and think that they are better than others- they aren't. For me watching this film was one of the hardest things that i have had to do in a while.

I don't want to take anything away from the film- both Benedict Cumberbatch (who keeps popping up) and Tom Cruise are in this film but Tom Cruise needs a gigantic slap in the face (or a seriously hard punch in the face) as I cannot write about his character politely.
Benedict Cumberbatch has a more pleasant character about him and delivers in every way that he manages.

It seems to be a popular theme at the moment but the film is filmed with cuts to flashbacks or forward depending on how you see it. I don't mind people doing that but it does make it hard to follow if you get distracted for a moment as you can't quite work out what is going on and if it is a flashback or not. It did confuse me momentarily when i was trying to multi task at the start of the film.

I know that i haven't mentioned the main guy in this film and i do have to say that he was fantastic but i have nothing to compare him too at the moment so it's a fantastic way to make a name for yourself and he needs to make more films so that we can the entirety of his talents.

The Fifth Estate

I saw the adverts for this film and because it had Benedict Cumberbatch in it I decided that i had to watch it without even knowing what it was about.

This film is about Wiki Leaks and the controversy it caused by releasing documents revealing cover ups and other harmful information.
Cumberbatch plays Julian Assange, the founder of Wikki Leaks. He is of course fantastic although i'm not always convinced by his Australian accent.
I feel strangely lacking in things to say about the film even though for once it was one of the few films that i actually watched in its entirety instead of listening to most of it.
I kinda feel like i should mention David Thewlis as he has a strong role in this film and his performance is first class- even if it is only a supporting role. We all know that he can act because we have seen Dragonheart and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I kinda had felt like he had damaged his career by being in Harry Potter but this film was released in 2013 so i think that it is safe to say that it hasn't and that he still has a more than decent career ahead of him.
Back to Mr Cumberbatch. Smaug was a lovely and pleasant change from the familiar role of Sherlock Holmes that I have become accustomed to seeing him in. The tone of his voice (when not Australian) can be magnificent but it doesn't have the same effect with the accent. Lets not take anything away from him, his performance is fabulous, egotistical but very necessary of his character.
I loved it!

Taken 2

As the advert says first they came for his daughter and then they came for him.

I ever so slightly felt that this wasn't quite as good as the first film but only slightly. I loved Taken and I love Liam Neeson in films so they can't really go wrong.
This film has more character development to it and less pure action for the sake of it. It is lovely to see Jean Grey returning to the movies as Lenore Mills and this time she is the one that gets taken after a long and rather complex struggle.
I don't need to say that Liam Neeson was fantastic as he always is but i just want to re-iterate how stupid you would be to take a member of his family because his acting as Bryan Mills is not only fast but furious as well. More in this film than the previous one there is a real sense of love and devotion, less anger and more a sense of doing what needs to be done. SPOILER ALERT There is a classic moment when he offers his opponent a gun only for the opponent to discover that he has removed the bullet and then Mills kills the other man. That moment shows understanding and compassion which was in some way missing from the previous film but is always essential for the great characters.
I wouldn't say that this film was ever going to be one of my favorites but the Taken series will always have a place in my film collection as they are films that i will undoubtedly watch again and will appreciate Liam Neeson in for years to come.

Kingsman

Yes! For all those viewers in England... I did in fact go and see it last night when it was released for general viewing and it is amazing!
The graphics are fantastic, the film opens with Money for Nothing and from then on it couldn't go wrong. I don't want to spoil anything for those that haven't had a chance to see the film yet so I will just skip ahead to discuss the acting.
Colin Firth- Fabulous and stunning as always. He has a great line which is one to remember when around Jehovas' Witnesses. The suit really works for him and his entire mannerism is well suited to his character. Likewise, Jack Davenport manages to match his upper class approach with a stunning performance that really accents his accent.

Now we come to the master... Samuel L Jackson. I have seen him in many films playing many different roles but this is a role that i have not seen him take on before. This time he plays a hilarious yet somewhat typical and certainly necessary to add to his CV of characters spanned over his many years in this profession. I do think that he deserves an award for his portrayal of a megalomania that can't stand the sight of blood.
Let's move on to Mark Strong and Michael Cain. We all know about both of these guys but it is nice to see Mark Strong taking on the less familiar role as one of the good guys instead of one of the bad guys. Upper Class society really does suit him. There was a hint of nasty in his character but nothing malicious, in fact, it was quite refreshing to see him have a complete role reversal.
Michael Cain was of course awesome. We know that he can play the high class from watching Legally Blond, however, it is a rarity that he ditches his normal cockney accent that we have grown accustom to seeing in The Italian Job, Educating Rita, Batman and Harry Brown.
It's really hard to say anything about this film without giving away everything.
There is of course a rising star in Taron Egerton. The what we would probably now call 'CHAVY' accent suits him well and makes the character all the better (if not slightly predictable). I didn't detect even a hint of a welsh accent and that makes me very pleased.

I loved everything about it.
Watch it, love it, comment!

Here's the trailer for anyone that hasn't seen it or heard about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4NCribDx4U

Ray

I have to admit that i hadn't heard of this film until i was given it for Christmas.
Ray is about Ray Charles, the genius that created a fusion to make new soul music. We think of Ray as more of swing but he merged jazz with gospel and blues to create popular soul music.

Jamie Foxx stars as Ray Charles in this film. I had seen him in Dream Girls so I knew that he had a background in this stuff and could pull it off but i had no idea that he could sing like that! The performance is out of this world! I kinda wanna ask Sir Tom Jones just how accurate the portrayal is because i am not old enough to know what Ray Charles was like but a certain Sir Jones performed with Ray Charles and could tell us instantly how close Jamie Foxx's depiction of him is.

I am watching the extended edition which is something that i wouldn't advise to anyone if they haven't already seen the film. I am use to watching extended editions that flow smoothly between the cut scenes and the actual used footage but this doesn't. It seems like the disk is skipping every time the film cuts into one of the deleted scenes. It's frustrating to have the flow of the film disrupted and at times hard to follow the plot because the cut scenes aren't necessarily corresponding with what is going on, they are flashbacks but the previous scene hasn't necessarily given any indication of a flashback happening.

I know that Jamie Foxx won the academy award for best actor but the leading women also deserves an award. A magnificent performance throughout from her, moving and emotional.
Terrence Howard is also in this film and of course we all know him from Iron Man where he is awesome. His character is a miser and not particularly well liked but he plays it well. It's good to see him in something that probably made less money that Iron Man.

Thoroughly enjoyed and definitely something to watch over and over again!

Inglorious Basterds

Tarantino comes back for possibly the only one of his films that i have yet to see- Inglorious Basterds.
a film about the Germans (again).
I particularly loved the young private explaining to this beautiful French Woman about how he was a war hero and stared in a film about himself and then she just sounded disgusted and left the cafe. There's such a thing as called trying to hard at the start. Then again they say that if at first you don't succeed try and try again, so he does and he manages it very well.
Who should walk in but Christoph Waltz who we should all know from his amazing role in Django Unchained with a horse that bows!
To put it in to context, he was the guy that killed this woman's entire family years ago and so she fled.
I am a huge fan of Christoph Waltz, i think that he is marvelous in anything he is in.

Next we come to Brad Pitt. His outrageous American accent whilst speaking Italian just gives the game away really. His companions are caught out by speaking very little Italian in a France that is dominated by German officers who you can guarantee will not only speak French and German but Italian as well. I am also a huge fan of the talented actress that goes mountain climbing in the obvious mountains in France a day before she appears in the cinema with all the important Nazi officials in a obvious fresh Cast for her leg (which got shot). The plot is somewhat ridiculous. Needless to say they get caught out, just as all the imposters do.

Watch it- all Tarantino is worth watching!

A highly overrated film

There are many things that this could relate to but today's chosen topic is 'The Forbidden Kingdom'.
I had high hopes for this film considering that it had Jackie Chan and Jet Li in it but it just went to the dogs from the start. The role of the monkey warrior is purely aweful- it's like the guy just smoked too much all the time. The special stuff that they did with the effects was just aweful. Is it too much to ask that I can just watch a film about kung fu without any of the extra crap? I want to see fighting without technical effects and a decent film about kung fu with reasonable characters. Bullet Proof Monk is a much better film because it teaches kung fu and has a decent plot without all this extra rubbish-y effects in the middle.

Rant over.
Jackie Chan's display of martial arts was once again top class and i simply loved his character that couldn't function without wine.
It's also good to see the kid from sky high progress (even if it is in small steps) to something ever so slightly more real.
I loved the scenery. I liked a lot of things about this film and I am sure that had this film have had a decent plot then i would've loved it a lot more than tolerating it in extreme parts.

WHAT DID YOU THINK?

North by Northwest

Hitchcock returns with the case of mistaken identity about a man who doesn't exist- North by Northwest.
Cary Grant stars as the unfortunate man who is mistaken for George Caplin. After seeing some of  his other classic films such as Psycho and Vertigo I couldn't wait for the end of the last film challenge and for the new year so that i could watch some more hitchcock films.
I guess that what  makes hitchcock films so brilliant is that they are all completely different. I think that i have now seen six of his films and none of them are the same in any way. I marvel at the simplicity of his story lines that seem to make truly excellent and critically acclaimed films.
Cary Grant is fantastic and even has slight moments of Sean Connery about his performance. The final cut scene is just something unreal. I stared at it and just kinda went... what? A time slide is a cool way to end the film and beats having an epilogue. Hitchcock knew how to do it all in style!
Sorry about the delay in getting this post up, because of work etc i am struggling for the moment to find the time to watch the films when it isn't the weekend so you will have to bear with me.

Dark Shadows

If i recall correctly there were some slightly sceptical reviews on this film.
Once again it is a different role for Johnny Depp and he pulls it splendidly, unfortunately it is not the type of role that really makes a film like the character Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean.
I can't fault the actors but the story was weak. Vampires that can't be killed and a family that is cursed is almost like Van Helsing and then you add in the witch and Michelle Pfeiffer and you've got Stardust so what Dark Shadows really is Van Helsing and Stardust combined which isn't the greatest combination that the world has ever seen.
Some lovely shots of a beautifully architectured gothic style mansion and some decent tunes in the form of Megadeth's 'No More Mr Nice Guy' couldn't help this film fall to the levels of acceptable but definitely not at his best films. I feel that i have to say that Depp's career is stumbling to an end the way that it began. I'm not saying that he was bad in it, not at all, just that the film itself wasn't very good and this is like all those films that no one really watches such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Nick of Time etc. There are worse films that he has made than this but whilst i take my hat off to him for trying something new i kinda wish that he would turn down the bad films and pick only the decent ones because there comes a point when you have played every character possible and cannot keep on pulling along mediocre films by your name alone, it drags you through the mud as well and then people start comparing your roles.. not good.
Easy enough to watch with a few slightly unnecessary scenes.
Back next time with Hitchcock's North by Northwest.

Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood returns in Gran Torino.
I remember saying that once you had seen one Clint Eastwood film then you had seen them all after watching Dirty Harry but I was very wrong.
Years later Clint Eastwood returns in Gran Torino as the guy that fought in the war against the Koreans. He hates the neighbours who (I believe) are Chinese until the guy from next door tries to steal his Gran Torino, gets into a fight on the lawn and then ends up paying off his debt working for Eastwood. 
This is a magnificent display of talent by Eastwood, a portrayal that has managed to convince many non-believers like me of his true talent.
His death is equally as heroic and moving as it brings about the arrest and end of the brutal gang that are the neighbors of the boy next door.
Definitely something to re-watch and something to raise a glass to, Clint Eastwood is in fact a master actor and with the support of a young ginger priest and a young teenage boy (or there abouts) a truly incredible film has been made.
Watch it and hit me back with your thoughts!