The Pink Panther (Peter Sellers)

I saw the remake with Steve Martin in the cinema and it was awful. I was young at the time so I really loved it but now I have seen what the pink panther really was and I stand by my opinion that the remake and Steve Martin are awful.

The theme was fantastic, the music throughout was stunning and the plot was much better than the modern attempt made in the remake to capture the interest of children and young people. What this film proves is that you don't need to modernise something to make it good, you just need to have a great plot and a decent cast.

Peter Sellers is a genius at comedy. This is managed by him not actually playing for laughs. Everything that he does could be passed off as an accident and you just think of him as an unfortunate man. Everything that happened was unfortunate or clumsy but totally possible and that gave a smooth feel to the film. Short bursts of laughter masked by the bigger picture.

I had worked out who the Phantom was almost instantly but then the plot got a little more confusing and opened up the story a little and so as the movie went on I was still convinced but not quite sure about some of the other characters. The twist at the end I didn't see coming. I almost wanted to curse the women at the end and shout bad things at the screen but I didn't. They were played so well and were such clever characters but managed to make an enemy out of me and it bothered me.

I really enjoyed this film. Nothing beats sitting back on the weekend with a glass of wine and watching an old film with quality actors that aren't around any more and just being able to appreciate the true genius of film.

DeadPool

The superhero film that isn't about superheroes. This film was clearly written by a guy that wanted to take the piss out of X-men and the green lantern.

Most of us were unfortunate enough to watch the green lantern and it was awful. Seeing how Ryan Reynolds can be in a good film, when he has a much cooler character to play and generally gets to be better than the green lantern is wonderful.

What makes this film so great? Let's start with the opening sequence, no actors just comments that we all want to put on the opening scene of a film but never do because it is unprofessional. Then you've got the typically British enemy who is wonderful. The character of Wade Wilson plays on all Ryan Reynolds annoying habits like talking all the time and not really being able to pull off romcoms because there isn't enough sex in it or fighting. The choice of music was fairly good as well and so many of the references just had us all laughing loudly in the cinema.

Thumbs up if you noticed the typical Stan Lee cameo as the strip club DJ.

My only criticism is that I wasn't sure that it was suited to the 15 rating that it received. I think of love actually- a film with a lot of unnecessary sex scenes in it and that was a 15. This film didn't have as many but i remember reading the description that they put underneath the ratings before the film began and it didn't actually say 'contains sex scenes and lots of nudity'. It probably had the nuditiy in it but it didn't have the thing about sex, it just said sex references. Some 15 year olds can handle that kinda stuff but others can't and just think that the rating is because of the vast amounts of violence and choice of language. What are your views on this? Am i the only one on this?

The only other thing that got on my nerves was colossus being Russian. I know that X-men are trying to move away from the films the were originally created with Patrick Stewart but if a character is created then for continuity you need to at least go with someone with the same accent. Colossus was not Russian in those films and should not be Russian in this film. People do notice and it does ruin the character of Colossus slightly. Apart from that it was all good and great fun!

The Commitments

Another musical for me to add to the ever growing list of musicals that have featured on this blog.

I thought that the Commitments had featured in the west end recently and so I made a point of watching this film whilst it was available to me. I guess that I was expecting something like We Will Rock You but this was different.

The music was soul and the story was all about this guy that creates a soul band in Dublin but in the end the disband because the lead singer gets offered a record deal, the trumpeter is a liar and has slept with all the back up singers and they all felt betrayed and let down by the trumpeter, to add to most of them hating the lead singer. If you are someone that likes soul music then it is a film worth watching but if you have no interest in soul music then it is not worth watching in any way.

The plot is good enough but not enough to work without the music. You can tell the really strong shows from the others because it wouldn't matter what music was being played, the story would still be good and this film kinda really needed the soul music. I know that it was all about soul music but if you took that away and made it just about a band in Dublin trying to get somewhere and then failing it just wouldn't be as good. There was no comedy in the film so it needed the musical aspect to it. Putting all that aside I really enjoyed it. As a multi-instrumentalist musician that likes every genre of music it inspired me to go back to my saxophone and try and mash up genres to create something that inspired me. Going back to the old stuff is sometimes the best way of finding inspiration.

The Transporter.

Jason Statham rose to fame with these films and it was tough for me to admit that I hadn't seen any of his films. Now I have.

Where to start? Jason Statham makes an excellent bad guy. Statham is more convincing that Vin Diesel because although he is not as well built as Diesel he is much more believable when a woman kisses him. Kissing Vin Diesel is like kissing Sylvester Stallone- it just makes me want to vomit because he isn't the romantic hero in any way.

What I liked about this film was that everything was thought out carefully. The devices in the car, the changing of the number plate and the way that he moved- nothing was reckless, everything suggested a calculated man that had prepared for every possible outcome. This film had a James Bond feel to it but was less daring and less risky than any James Bond movie. Statham also does not give off a vibe of being someone that could be compromised by a woman.

Almost a Denzel Washington feel about this film which I liked, Calm at all times and simple minded. Jason Statham makes a perfect hero with a villainous side to him. I know that there is something like another three films after this and if I can find a way to slip them in then I will happily watch the others as well.

American Pie

Great soundtrack, kinda longed for the song American Pie but oh well, it could have been a lot worse.

American Pie is kinda pointless but that is what helps to make it a semi good film. You have to read the synopsis before watching the film and accept that it is all about 4 high school guys trying to have sex. What this film manages to explore is how not everything is about sex. Having a reputation for being good at it isn't necessarily going to help you start a decent relationship.

I don't know if this was a good film or not but I can say that it wasn't a terrible film. The part I liked the best was when it was revealed that this guy was a lacrosse player. In England only private schools play lacrosse and no one can actually work out what the rules are or where the pitch actually is.

There's not much to actually say about this film other than the ending made me laugh quite a lot. There were so many moments when i put my head in my hands because something really stupid was going on and not something stupid that was funny, just something stupid that was going to ruin things. What I will say is that I was really impressed with Lilly from How I Met Your Mother. Even though her character was annoying and talked all the time it was great to see her play a different character.

Blade 2

Back to the world of Vampires.

Blade was a very good film and I was wondering how Wesley Snipes would fare in the second part of this trilogy. I wanted to see something different from him and I didn't really get it. So many of the fight scenes were so obviously sped up that it made me want to cry constantly. I know that film is somewhat older than a fair amount of films that are on the top of the list for this year but even the really old films don't look like they have shot one person from far away and sped it up to double time. The way to do double time is to slow everything else down, otherwise it just looks stupid!

Blade is a tough one to call because he operates alone. Not much can be said on the rest of his team because they were hardly a team and it was hard to judge the other vampires who were only there to pretend to be bad. The story was quite literally, vampires wanted to use Blade so he killed their enemy and the vampires. They gave him a sword and he went for it. Yes, there was a plot but in essence all that Blade 2 was, was almost two hours of Wesley Snipes walking around in his black trench coat with a sword and some guns killing things.

I still really liked it though. No comedy but apart from the sped up fight scenes there was nothing to insulting about the film.

American History X

A very- I want to say Radical film. Incredibly racist and violent. I found it a very difficult film to watch but that isn't to say that it wasn't a good film.

Ed Norton is somewhat convincing as a skinhead and even at times as a brother looking out for his family and trying to set them on the right path. For me, what this film lacked was the wow factor. There wasn't really anything in this film that made me think- 'wow, that was a great film'. A lot of Spielberg films have that feel about them and that the was the feel that i was looking for in a film so political as this.

American History X is a film that is going to produce emotions and provoke responses from within you. Regardless of how willing you are to respond the film it really sparks all sorts of emotions within you. I actually turned the film off several times before completing the film. It is sensitive and for me it was too sensitive. Instead of producing raw emotion that drew me towards the film it provoked such a response that I slipped further away from the film. This movie is the kind of movie that will do that to you though. All films push some people away and this just wasn't a film for me.

Beetlejuice

Having seen Michael Keaton as Batman and not been particularly impressed with him I am now very glad that I watched this film. The transformation is incredible.

The best part of the film was probably the last scene which has Winona Ryder dancing in mid air for a while. That scene is brilliant and a fantastic way to finish a film. Her character was fairly cool throughout, seeing the ghosts when others couldn't and also siding with them and attempting to save them no matter what the cost.

Beetlejuice is a classic case of a lot of makeup and something better than the night of the living dead. I assume that the rating of 15 is because it is an old film. Nothing in this film warrants a 15 rating compared to what is now considered to be worthy of that rating. The music is fantastic, typically the type of music that I would have associated with the film Dr No but anyway, slightly out of character music makes a great film.

Don't know what's next as it depends on how i feel and what i get time for. 

Jack Reacher

Tom Cruise attempts to undertake the role of the famous character that is about 6,4' and 200 lbs. Thoroughly convincing in everything apart from appearance.

The story is wonderful and the film is just as good. A violent film but not unnecessary violence. The plot was clever and unfolded neatly into the next part of the film as it went along. Jack Reacher is the ultimate hero because he does not consider himself to be a hero. A man with nothing to lose makes a damn good hero because he is only fighting for himself. There are times when you thought that his compassion would have got in the way but as he said himself, he doesn't care so you can't use anything against him.

The way that the stunts were done was pretty impressive, especially the car chases. The chase was just something extraordinary because it didn't try too hard and wasn't quite as ridiculous as you would see in the James Bond films. Everything in this film was measured and precised, everything was typically characteristic of the fictional character Jack Reacher.

I know that there are more books and a part of me would like another movie to be made but I am not really sure that I can see how they would. It wasn't left open for another film but that doesn't mean to say that they cannot make another film.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Anyone that is a hitchhikers fan will get that reference instantly. The song at the start of the film is so fantastic. Instantly you know that this film is going to be a good laugh an little weird but weird in a good way.

Martin Freeman leads the line as the earth man and at first I wasn't particularly convinced by him but as the film went on I was more and more convinced until I was very impressed with him. What I loved about it was that in a cast full of stars everyone had a part to play. The less well known actors weren't shown up by the stars and the stars didn't under perform.

Alan Rickman should have received an award for his role as Marvin the paranoid Android. His character just made me laugh constantly and in the end was the biggest hero of them all. I loved it when the enemies all saw things for Marvin's point of view and became depressed. That is with out a doubt the best way to end a war and all credit needs to be given to the writer of the book (Douglas Adams) for the creative genius that went behind the book and the film.

This film is brilliant- I love it, I love everything about it.

Things are going to be a little manic on the blog with a post a day for the next few days. Next up is Jack Reacher, followed by Beetlejuice.