Tolkien marathon!

Hey guys. I don't know if any of you guys have tried this but I scheduled a Tolkien marathon for yesterday and today and we completed it!
We decided that we would have to play a drinking game throughout the hobbit and the two towers regardless of what we were drinking and so at 11am yesterday morning we set off on our journey of middle earth and Peter Jackson. We actually managed to watch all the Hobbit films and the fellowship extended by the end of day one. The battle of the five armies extended edition hasn't been released yet so we couldn't watch that version but the other hobbit films we watched extended and we finished day one at about 11.30pm and no- we didn't stop for food for very long.
This was the two best days of my life so far! I love the lord of the rings and I loved being able to have a conversation about the extended parts in the films in relation to the book and the parallel clips from either the Hobbit or the lord of the rings.
I really hope that there are some serious Tolkien fans out there that are reading this and can join me in passing opinions on the extended versions. All of the extended versions have bits of the book in the scenes that were cut from the original films, which is a shame because in my opinion they should have cut some of the made up or changed things in the films and kept the parts that were most like the book instead.
There are a few points that I think are open to debate. 1) Radagast. I don't remember too much about how he was described in the hobbit but i remember being kinda dissapointed that he didn't feature in the fellowship. As Jack pointed out to me, in the fellowship he kinda just passes on a message to Gandalf and then sends a few birds and other animals to keep watch and that is his entire mention in the books. Having someone play him in the fellowship would have made portraying his character in the hobbit much harder as they would have had to have used the same guy and the guy that played Radagast in the hobbit and he was perfect!

2) Should Peter Jackson have been allowed to make three films out of the hobbit- no. There were at least five points when you could have ended the second hobbit film but he didn't and instead he added in some random love crap and made three films- making the third film the worst.

3) When Jackson included something into the hobbit he really went and learnt about it properly. When they added in all the stuff about dragon sickness, the scene with the statue made from gold was exactly how the process of making gold is done so from that point of view, his research was perfect.

It was awesome! Over and out guys!

The Iron Lady

This film won a lot of awards. I didn't have to live through the Margaret Thatcher so it didn't effect me in the same way that it would have effected my mum.
I learnt so much about that era though. We think back to why we haven't had a woman in power since Thatcher and people say that it is because of her but when you see the film you realise that she was the way that she was because there were no other women in parliament. The women was a strong character that won us a war and she won it almost single handedly.

Meryl Streep was magnificent as Thatcher. There were some cut scenes from original footage and apart from a slight difference in hair coloring at the back of her head, you would not notice the difference between Streep and Thatcher. The makeup was fantastic.
I thought that the entire film was fantastic. I spent so much time praising Streep, praising her accent and her performance. Jim Broadbent was outstanding as well. I spent so much time trying to work out if it was or wasn't him because it sounded like him but it didn't look like him. This was an overall, truly magnificent film.

If anyone that reads this was alive in the Thatcher era and watched this film and would like to comment then i would be more than happy to hear from you!

The Other Man

Antonio Banderas adds to the final piece in the Liam Neeson trilogy that has been going on for a few days.
I was once again expecting this to be another 'Taken' style film but it wasn't. This film was a flop- it failed to reach it's budget and would explain as to why it doesn't spring to mind when I think of Liam Neeson films. I have to say that I really like watching films which are different and this was a film that was different.
The plot in short is that Neeson's wife is cheating on him with Banderas and so he goes and discovers it and has a long chess game with Banderas, tries to murder Banderas with an axe at one point and then his wife dies. Nothing grabbed me in the story, none of the lines were memorable and there was hardly any action in it.

I can easily understand why this film was a flop. It wasn't tear jerky, so it wasn't moving enough to capture the audience that way, there was nothing comical about it and more importantly there was no action in it. In today's world a film needs at least one of those if not some of all of those things to make it a success.

I love both of those guys as actors but Neeson, in his performance just didn't have the same emotion that he had in Love actually. I don't think that either of the guys let the film down, I just think that the film was bad on so many levels that there wasn't enough to work with.

House of Flying Daggers

Hey guys, sorry about yesterday- I just ran out of time and space to watch another film off the list.

I've had this film for a while and I was supposed to watch it ages ago with my little bro but we never got round it so I decided to watch it while he was away.
It's been really good to go back to watching martial arts films subbed because it means that I am watching them as they would have been originally. Dubbed is terrible because it means that you get a really irritating american accent over the top (no offence) that takes away from the beauty and translation of the original film.

I really liked this film. They play on the story of a woman who is blind but is part of the house of flying daggers. It really foccuses on all the things you can do when you are blind, how much stronger our senses become when we lose one of them.

If you're keen on martial arts then watch this film and tell me what you think!

The Monuments Men

When I saw the front cover for this film and some of the adverts  I had a sinking feeling that it was going to be more like Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards but I am happy to say that it wasn't at all.

A film about finding and re-capturing the stolen artwork that Hitler and the German's stole for his museum.

There is a ton of stars in this film but the guy that I was most impressed with was Matt Damon. I have often felt that he is overrated as an actor but there have been two films that have changed my opinion of him and this is one of them. He doesn't have any heroic moments or particularly moving moments but he was solid throughout and he was helped by spending most of the film in a different country to the rest of the troops.
George Clooney was a fearless leader and actually very convincing in his role. I have to say that none of them are as good as Tommy Lee Jones as a military officer. Clooney doesn't really have that personality that makes you fear him, he doesn't appear strong or action like and if it were him against Tommy Lee Jones in a fight he would lose within thirty seconds.
Cate Blanchett was so good that I didn't even realise that it was her!

I'm not a huge fan of historical films. Personally I feel that there have been far too many Nazi Germany films made over the last fifty years or so and that really we could be making films about something else. Surely we must have covered every angle about WW2 by now?

Certainly now that they have made this film, i think that they have covered every angle.

Gun Shy

So we're on a bit of Liam Neeson film marathon here due to me listing them all together.

I have come to expect a certain type of film from this guy. We know that he can make other stuff as he featured in Love Actually but recently he seems to be making films of a similar genre. What helped sell this one was the presence of Sandra Bullock, known for making crappy romcoms and of course, the wonderful- Miss Congeniality.

This time there was a more sensitive side to him, it wasn't just lets shoot everyone first and ask questions later whilst trying to save a whole bunch of people. DEA officer gets shot and then has to go through group therapy to continue with his mission, because this is more about the undercover side of the mission there is more to his character than you would normally expect with a Liam Neeson film. For once he didn't have to be the tough guy that showed only aggression and was driven by anger and pride, this time he was permitted to have things called friends and be a friendly kinda guy.

I actually really like this side to Neeson and I think that he should portray it more often. Sometimes we forget the talents of some actors because they make a series of films that are all really similar. The difference between someone with the class of Neeson and someone that can't act is that they manage to escape the stereotype by making other films in the middle that show different sides to them.

Bullock was wonderful as supporting woman and playing a different kinda girl to the one that she has been recently. I really liked her in this film. I really liked this film,

Gone with the wind

Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.

This is another classic example of a pointless waste of three and a bit hours just for one line at the end of the film.

This film gained critical claim and I have no idea why. The only thing that I have to say about this film is that everything made after was a huge step up. This film clearly laid the paving for much better films to be made.
I found this film really boring. Nothing in this three hour film really captured me at all. I would not recommend that anyone gives up three hours of their life to watch this film.

 

Non-Stop

If you have been following this blog from the start then you have probably realised that I love watching Liam Neeson movies. Last year, after watching Taken and Unknown I decided to go through and add some more Liam Neeson movies to the list, purely because they have him in.

This time Liam is a Federal air marshall and is in charge of saving a plane from being bombed. Throughout the movie I was sitting on the edge of my seat. There were moments in the plot when i was like, 'well that can't be real' but even so- if it had been real it would've been one hell of a twist to the plot!

He was fantastic as always! The thing i love about these action packed films is that there really is only one way to film them- running along beside him. Julianne Moore and Michelle Dockery were superb acting alongside Neeson. I do love it when there are some great female roles in the film and both of them were fantastic supporting him. The characters just grew throughout the film and made it something awesome to add to the list of awesome Neeson films.

War Horse

I read this book as a child that loved reading Michael Morpurgo books. I have yet to see the stage performance but I am told by many that it is amazing.

I remember that the ending amazed me as a reader but watching this film has reminded me that there was a reason that I had blocked out most of the story. The start is great but it's a sensitive topic throughout, it is moving but maybe a little to emotional for me. Classic Spielberg through and through.

David Thewlis was versatile again. It was a similar role to his in the boy in the striped pyjamas and dragon heart- sort of an ass hole but not quite irritating and horrible enough to really make it as a true villain. I haven't seen a lot of films with him in, so I guess that there is a part of me that is wondering whether he can act as the good guy, can this guy pull off being the hero? If anyone reading this has a film as an answer to my question then please post the name below and i will check it out!

Tom Hiddlestone features in this film as well (all be it briefly) as the captain. Until now I had only seen him as Loki so it was refreshing to see him as someone else and get an idea of what he can do.

Emily Watson grew on me very quickly as the film went on, in fact, apart from the main kid, i think that she was the best in this film.

This really was Jeremy Irvine's debut so let's give him a massive hand as he was fantastic. The character really grew as the film developed and he was perfect for it in every way.

This is a Spielberg film so we know that we are going to get great music (John Williams) and great directing and producing so it seems rather pointless for me to write about the filming or the direction as Spielberg is generally flawless in those departments and this was no exception.

Batman 1989

Having watched The Crow, I wanted to keep going with the theme of the slightly comic book like or graphic novel films so I chose Batman.

Jack Nicholson is known for playing the Joker in this film. This role is what helped him make a name for himself as there are millions of batman fans out there!
It is another representation of the weirdness in Nicholson because I have not yet see him play a 'normal' character and to be perfectly honest i am not sure that he could.
It is hard to watch him in this role without comparing him to Heath Ledger and when it comes to weirdness and psychedelic-nesss, I think that Ledger was better but then again it was the role that killed him so maybe he was getting in to it a bit much and maybe it was actually better for Jack Nicholson that he didn't get into it quite as much as that.

I can see the role of batman as a work in progress in every film. Michael Keaton was better than Adam West in the film. I loved the Adam West series but the fight scenes were quite ridiculous- wonderful if you wanted a classic example of comic book sketches but nothing more than that. Christian Bale is a huge step above Michael Keaton because he changed his voice for the role of Batman, so that there is a difference between Bruce Wayne and Batman. Sometimes you look at a guy and just think that he isn't cut out to play the part and Michael Keaton gave me that feel, he didn't have the build for it.

The standout performer of the film was Jack Nicholson but lets not forget the ever important and wonderful role of Alfred that is always played to perfection.

Batman fans- what did you think?

The Crow

Hey guys, I know it's been almost a week and i'm sorry about that- it's been a tough week. Nothing better than to get back down to it by watching the Crow.

There were times when the Crow and the joker looked the same, the same smile around their mouth and sometimes even similar actions but lets not dwell on it too much because the joker and batman were around before the crow was made.

The plot is simple enough, a man and his fiancee and murdered, except that the man gets saved by a crow and goes on a revenge spree. The entire film is all about him killing all those involved.

There are some wonderful moments in this film such as the moment where he has stabbed this guy with a beautiful knife and the man wont die quick enough so he borrows someone else's gun and shoots him.

The way it was filmed almost gives me a sin city feel. Sin city was very graphic novelly and not so real but still awesome whereas this one is less graphic novelly and more real but still filmed in the same dark way- using lots of rain and broken glass.

Brandon Lee is magnificent in his final film. He comes across as controlled at all times, not the kinda guy that looks like he could break both your arms and legs off without even trying but more the kinda guy that is likely to insert things into each vital point of your body and kill you with precision. He is the classic icon of a villain, one that makes you shake and worry over what is going to happen instead of just being physically intimidated by him.

The thing that i will say about this film is that if you didn't know that he had died will making this film, you would have no idea that it wasn't Brandon Lee throughout.

City Lights

If you're reading this thinking that this is a post on the 2014 Hindi film CityLights then I'm afraid to disappoint you but you're not alone. I started watching the Hindi film before discovering that i couldn't understand anything and that there was in fact a 1931 Charlie Chaplin film called City Lights and that it was more likely to be that film that i had included on the list.

The beauty of slapstick comedy is that it is highly entertaining. Silent movies are a master class in acting. Any new guy out there looking to make his name in the acting department should sit down and watch a few genius silent movies such as The Phantom Of The Opera, The Artist and at least two Charlie Chaplin films. These films teach you how to express things with your body or face. How to act without speaking- how to convey words and messages in silence. This is where the true craft of acting can be found.

I really enjoyed watching this film. I laughed a lot and got to experience an evening of extreme pleasure watching an excellent portrayal of creativity and art.

The Graduate

I wanted to watch this primarily for the soundtrack. I love the song Mrs. Robinson and knew that it was off the soundtrack for this film so it was added to the list.

I guess the moral behind this film is be careful who you sleep with! 

Young Dustin Hoffman was almost unrecognizable to me. I was expecting something slightly more insane or just very different to what it was but that's fantastic.

I was mesmerized by the transformation. Having started with his later films, seeing his earlier work was a breath of fresh air. I think that i prefer him as he has been known to be in Mr Magorium's wonder emporium but still his undisputed best role is hook.

The thing that bothered me throughout was the editing of this film. Star Wars fans will be able to relate to this when I say the director clearly just had one cut method that he really liked because every scene ends with it just fading to black in the same way that star wars scenes are put together by the swishing horizontal or vertical swipe across the screen. 

What we learn from this is that it doesn't matter how much money you put into a film, into recruiting stars etc if you can't put the money into the editors. The film has to be flawless in every way to really make the big money. I know that we have evolved since this film was made and technology has come a long way but i'm not sure that they didn't have the ability to cut it in a different way at that time. This would be another great time for Rhys to exert his expertise on this matter and enlighten me as to whether this wish would have been possible or not.

The accompanying soundtrack from Simon and Garfunkel was perfect for it. I really feel my admiration for a film lifting when it has a great soundtrack that mirrors and adds to the mood trying to be displayed in the film.