Mary and Max

After watching 'Oldboy' and not really liking it I was told that this film would be more to my liking and it is with great excitement that I announce the very first Stop Motion film on my blog to be 'Mary and Max'! There are so many different types of film that should be making it on to this blog and aren't because I am unfamiliar with the genre. Think of Stop Motion and what do you come up with? For me it is 'Wallace and Grommet' and 'Chicken Run' (which I really didn't like). After that some Tim Burton films may pop up like 'The Corpse Bride' but hardly any compared to the five hundred off films I could think of if you said 'action' to me.

The small country (probably bigger than the UK but I failed Geography so I am just guessing) of Australia produced this film and it is about the correspondence between an obese man (Max) in Australia and a very young girl in America (Mary). They have never met and Mary's mother is not fond of her daughter talking to an obese man whom she considers to be ugly but Mary and Max keep up this correspondence throughout Mary's life until she is an adult, has graduated from college and has done well until she writes a book about Max's autism, which he doesn't like and he stops talking to her. She sinks into depression and her lover leaves her. She sends Max a cup which says 'I'm sorry' and after a long time Max sends her something back. It has been a long time since she heard from Max and Mary has become suicidal, taking some Valium and attempting to hang herself before she is interrupted by the neighbour across the road drawing her attention to the package that has been on her doorstep for a while and he saves her life. Mary goes to see Max but by the time that she gets there he has died.

I enjoyed this film until Mary attempted to kill herself and then I started to question it a little but as Francis rightly pointed out this film shows the circle of life, the good, the bad and everything else that comes with it. No matter how good your life is there will always be a bad to it and the better your life is the worse that bad is. Mary experienced the bad when everything fell apart but everything fell apart because of her mistake with Max. Max had a difficult life and he needed to let go but you can't judge how someone is going to react and if we were being critical then we would say that she should have asked Max before writing the book but she didn't so instead of going on to be a bestseller she destroys all the books and is left with nothing,
This is another reminder that life can be truly awful without friends or anyone to love you.

This film is also in black and white which can, at times, make it a little harder to appreciate or understand because there is a limited amount that you can do with the film and lot of it is totally dependent on your imagination and mine isn't that good. Stop Motion is a skill. To make a 90 min film out something in black and white which doesn't actually involve any humans being shown on screen is a difficult task. This film would have slipped past me for that reason. Wallace and Grommet only has the audience that it did because of it being a TV series. People got used to the idea of Wallace and Grommet and then they took to the film. Even though it had the names of Barry Humphreys and Phillip Seymour Hoffman on it this film still struggled. It was around the same time as Tim Burton was producing some of his films and I can't think of why this film has been so overlooked but it has and Francis is right, it is an underrated movie. I hadn't heard of this film before Francis recommended it to me and I think that a lot of  people haven't heard of this film. So if you haven't heard of this film and want to appreciate all types of film then go and watch this film and experience the circle of life.

Oldboy (2003)

This film was recommended to me by a friend and is part of the vengeance trilogy however, the rest of the trilogy will not feature on the blog this year as this film was the second in the trilogy and was very weird.

The first South Korean film to feature on the blog in its short history and I am always saying that I want to watch films from different cultures and that are in a different language. I am also encouraging people to comment either on here, twitter or on the facebook page telling me their favourite films and if I haven't already seen them then I will watch them and review them here so feel free to leave a comment and I will watch it within a week and post the review here.

I found this film disturbing. It is a thriller and I will assume that most people aren't familiar with the plot so briefly I will explain. Oh Dae-Su is a business man and is arrested for being drunk and disorderly. On his way home he is kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years without knowing why. He spends the years in prison practising shadow boxing and trying to dig his way out (similar to The Count of Monte Cresto) but before he can finally escape he is hypnotised and wakes up in a suit on a roof. He spends most of the film trying to find out who imprisoned him and why and ends up playing a game with his captor. His captor eventually kills himself and the film is left on a slight cliffhanger.

This film contains unnecessary violence, incest and way too long sex scenes and it is entirely motivated around revenge. Watching the fight scenes was no way near as impressive as some other martial arts films that are out there and were out there before this film was released. It won awards but I am struggling to understand why. No one in it was particularly outstanding.  I didn't enjoy the plot or anything particularly about this film but I didn't hate it. It is a thriller and it works well as a thriller with you spending a lot of your time trying to work out why these things are happening to him but with him breaking out of prison so early it made the film feel longer than it actually was. Coming in at under 2 hours is short in the world of film now but within about thirty mins of the film he was out of prison and trying to track down the prison that he was in. Once he does that he has to fight everyone in the prison to get out again and at a time like that you would expect the music to change but there was nothing to really suggest that action was taking place and that he was going to leave the building with something sticking out of his back.

Only when they were screaming did they show a change in emotion. In the remake they show a lot more emotion and really play on the general confusion of the main character which made the film a lot more interesting. Maybe just because this film is so weird I didn't find it interesting and I struggled to keep myself watching it. Nothing about this film really screamed thriller at me, not the music, not the way in which it was filmed. It settled for something in between Memento and a Hitchcock movie. Hitchcock is dependent on the music and Memento has the confusion shown in the sometimes disjointed and blury filming and this film had neither but appeared to be trying to have both. Yes, there is a different style of filming in different cultures but this film seemed to be a little lost as to what style it was going for.

If anyone wants to comment on this and help me out with it then please feel free to do so but for now it gets a solid 5 out of 10 from me.

Revenge of the Pink Panther

The fourth one and the last one that actually stars Peter Sellers as Clouseau because the final instalment of this series was made after he had died. Revamped music and the traditional style opening being forced to wait a while before coming on and letting you know that you are watching a Pink Panther film didn't go down too well but showed the direction that this film was going to go in.

For the first time I am going to be critical of a Pink Panther film. There are several films of the franchise that were made in between the Peter Sellers films which didn't have any of the original cast in them and aren't particularly well known. Some of the plot goes missing between this film and the last one reviewed on the blog, however, the continuity issues are the same as Dreyfus managed to completely obliterate himself using a vanishing machine so his constant presence in this film is a little confusing. At most this guy would be invisible and there is no explanation as to how he managed to gain his body back. I love the character of Dreyfus and I feel that he adds a lot as a regular enemy but this time they have brought back someone who was long gone.

My other criticism of this film is that it is not as funny as the others have been. Every other film has made me laugh a lot but this one didn't. There were moments when they could have and moments where you could see it coming before it happened but there wasn't anything that actually made me really laugh in the same way that some of the Cato moments did in the previous film. I also marvel at how he manages to continually buy a bed that seems to be made out of paper and breaks every time that he has a fight with someone. That takes some serious skill and stupidity. I am amazed that Peter Sellers continued with this franchise for that long and managed to keep finding stupid things to do that weren't obviously stupid or out of character. Overall it is a good enough film but the other ones were better and it doesn't make you particularly excited to watch the last film in the box set.

The adjustment bureau

Friday night is the cinema night but in this house we all sit down, watch a film that none of us have seen and have a good time without spending the ridiculous money on the cinema. After scrolling through every film on Sky Cinema we ended up choosing a Matt Damon film in the form of  'The adjustment bureau'. A weird squad who wear trilbies and a book written by a guy with an unfortunate surname. This is kind of like 'The Matrix' in that weird things happen to make you not trust the internet stopping for a moment of you spilling your coffee. Don't trust anything- just like you can change the matrix you can make an adjustment.

This is another totally different role for Matt Damon and as someone who was at first very sceptical over Damon, believing that he could only play action film characters but now, having seen more of his films and seen him take on different roles, attempt to push through being young and sort of attractive into being older and more established I am becoming a huge fan of him. For fans of Captain America 'Falcon' is in this film and he is worth watching. Anthony Mackie (Million Dollar baby, The Hurt Locker) playing Harry Mitchell who is not an angel but lives longer than a normal man is completely different from any role I have ever seen him in before. Passive and at times faltering a little but always calm. The character manages to end the film a lot better than the way that he started it.

Emily Blunt has chosen her parts carefully and not just accepted anything thrown her way. This time taking on the character or Elise, a dancer who David Norris (Damon) meets in the men's bathroom and then again on a bus before being told by the adjustment bureau that he can never see her again only to constantly defy them and run from them to be with her. She suffers more emotional hurt from him at the hands of the bureau than ever before but makes the right decision in the end. The balance of emotion and control is perfect and we all want to slap Norris for leaving her in a hospital. I won't say that she carries the film but she carries half the film and Matt Damon carries the other half of the film. Together they make the film a very successful film.

One final shout out to Terrence Howard. Wearing that hat makes him threatening and his looks and voice make him perfect for the role. This is a man who is mostly always in control of himself no matter what part he plays. This film is a calm one in the sense of Damon not doing a 'Jason Bourne' on it. More like 'Now you see me' in terms of the feel of it which was exactly what we were after.

Carrie

Stephen King is normally associated with Horror and if we are making a confession then now is the time for me to say that I categorised this film as horror until I actually watched it and apart from the death at the end I don't really see how it could be categorised as that.

From this film Carrie seems to be a film about a child who is victimised by her peers and has a slightly religiously challenged mother who abuses her. I use that term because she punishes Carrie for everything, quoting random bits of the bible to justify her actions but most Catholics now would get angry if they saw that taking place. I like to keep religion and politics to myself and not get into any sort of rant about them on this blog so as to not offend anyone who stumbles across this blog so all I will say is that the mother is not entirely right in the head and that appears to be why Carrie is picked on so badly. A lot of children experience bullying or feel like they don't fit in with the rest of the class but this is the first film in which I have seen a teacher stand up for a student in the way that the Gym teacher does for Carrie in this film and I salute it for that reason and that reason alone.

This film was made in 1976 and the only name that I recognise from this film was John Travolta even though many names such as Nancy Allen, William Katt and Amy Irving featured in this film and their careers were launched or greatly helped by this film. It looks like it was made in the 70's because now, 40 years on (41 to be precised) it looks dated and John Travolta wasn't fat in this movie which is how he has looked for the last two decades worth of movies that he has made. In the 70's it was slightly less scandalous to beat your child, although it was frowned upon by some people whereas now if anyone even suspected that a child was being abused schools, social services and safeguarding agencies would get involved. Carrie gets the better of everyone when her mother dies at the end of the film and she is elected prom queen (albeit so that they can empty a bowl of disgusting pigs blood all over her).

This film was the first adaptation of a Stephen King novel.

Carrie has some interesting skills and makes things happen when she is stressed or panicked without being able to explain them. No one else realises that it is her because no one else can explain why the light bulb smashed either. No one dies until the end and even then the mother probably deserved being hurt for not preparing her daughter for anything in life and for abusing her. Everyone dies in this film at the end because Carrie imagines that everyone is laughing at her at prom and she electrocutes the principal, crushes the gym teacher, sets the building on fire and locks everyone in it before flipping over the car of Chris and Billy (the two that victimised her at prom) and killing them as well. Kind of gruesome and I feel sorry for the Gym teacher who only tried to help Carrie but when you are telekinetic and you think that people are laughing at you, especially the people who bullied you then you probably do want them dead.

Carrie is for any child that has ever been abused or bullied.

Jason Bourne

This was on the blog for last year but I missed it in the cinema and didn't want to try and stream it illegally so it had to wait until this year.

In total there are five 'Bourne' films but only four actually feature Jason Bourne (Matt Damon). The 'Bourne Identity' is where it all starts and is only half of the first book in the series (of the same name) and is where Jason starts his take down on Treadstone and also the start up of the blackbriar project. That is followed by 'The Bourne Supremacy' and 'The Bourne Ultimatum', which is where the Blackbriar project is destroyed and Jason learns his real name. So that makes three films. I can count and yes, there are five films in this series. The fourth and somewhat unrelated is 'The Bourne Legacy' which features Jeremy Renner instead of Matt Damon as focuses on the blackbriar project and the destruction of this project. Renner is no Damon and his character is not Jason Bourne but he does also manage to take down the project and the people from the CIA involved in it with the help of a woman so at least they continue that running theme. Now we go back to Jason Bourne and him finishing all the work that he started three films ago.

Matt Damon is continuing his role and carrying on from where he left off even though he looks about ten years older than he did in the previous film which is the only disappointment in the film that is claiming to follow on directly from the 'The Bourne Ultimatum'. The physicality and action of the previous films is still there and they have edited in some shots from when he was younger for the flashbacks and you just can't help but feel that he is going to end everything in this film; the problem is that it didn't end like that, there is a possibility of another film but they are running the risk of just repeating the plot of the second and third films again if they do so.

Julia Stiles is back alongside Damon as Bourne's associate and helper. She and him always did have a bit of a romantic 'thing' going on throughout the films and it continues in this film until ***SPOILER ALERT*** she dies heroically in a motorbike escape from a sniper but not before she has hacked the CIA to help Jason understand why his father was killed. This film isn't about him taking down the CIA it is about him understanding his past, why his father was killed and why the CIA are continually after him. Tommy Lee Jones takes the reigns as chief of the operation against Bourne but even he is no match for the character and the upcoming to-be-chief-operator is not stupid, she suspects that Jones is secretly interfering with her operations and she tips off Bourne multiple times in an attempt to use him and draw him back to the programme but in the end she develops the same opinion as every other chief operator and attempts to play him but we all know that you can't play Bourne. Hence the possibility of another film.

Matt Damon is as rutheless as ever and 'Jason Bourne' is a typical 'Bourne' film. As far as plot and action goes it is on a par with the first film but of course, instead of watching it with interest to find out who he is and why he can do what he can do we are now watching it to see how it will end, what he will do and who he would settle down with. Jason Bourne is getting old; the character is reaching the point on screen where whilst he will still be physically fit he will start to be overrun and overpowered by younger opponents. His knowledge of how to operate and how the CIA operate will always keep him alive but Bourne is starting to tire. Take nothing away from Damon because his performance is consistent but it is the age factor, it is the grey hair that makes most people think that he is getting past it.

This film would be a great way to end the series. *cough cough, take the hint directors, cough cough**

Guardians of the Galaxy 2

I am Groot. The cast and crew that made such a phenomenal hit two years ago with the first film have returned to bring the eighties music back to the world with a new set list and a baby Groot to set things off in style.

The first five minutes of this film are just hilarious. Watching baby Groot dance to the eighties music whilst every other member of his team is busy shooting at some thick skinned monster just had the entire cinema laughing. He is totally oblivious to everything else going on around him at that point and has become a firm lover of the somewhat less fashionable music that rocked the seventies and eighties. This is without a doubt Vin Diesel's best role...ever.

Stallone comes into the squad for this movie (to reunite with his buddy Michael Rooker from Cliffhanger) as a character that will become bigger in the next film. When his name came up at the start I did frown a little because I am not the biggest fan of him but with him only having two scenes worth of screen time it actually panned out very well for him. Yondu (Michael Rooker) has more screen time, is a much bigger character and is the real hero of this film. With his character only playing a supporting role he manages to steal all the emotion and screen time in the last few scenes and well played to him because the character opens up a little but never comes out of character, never stops being that difficult guy with the whistle arrow.

With the focus not so much on Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and her father this film turns it focus onto Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and his parents, ultimately his father and discovering why he is only half human and just how cool things can be when he knows the truth but there is always a hitch. The planet Ego has a very Rivendel feel to it, it is beautiful but lonely and you could start to read the script about five minutes before it came, which was something of a disappointment. However, that being said, it was possibly the only disappointment as there is character development for every character in this film excluding baby Groot who is just adorable and has all the best scenes.

For the music, for the action, for acknowledging that this is Bradley Cooper's best role (Rocket) and for the laughter that it produced (mostly from Drax) you need to watch this film. Drax makes everyone laugh with how insensitive he is. I thought that I was blunt but he is far blunter than I ever am because I don't openly tell people that they are hideous. Got to love every character in this film and the comics that they were based on. Also be sure to watch out for the Marvel typical Stan Lee cameo.

42nd street

There is a serious lack of musical presence on the blog this year and I think that this may be one of two that are actually on the blog! With all the action films flowing around the blog there really is a need for a total change of pace and with the film being a Broadway hit and having made it's way to London for a stunning production on the west end's biggest stage it has earned its place on the blog this year.

The film is black and white but not like the Fred Astaire feel that I was lead to believe. There is a plot to this film which doesn't focus around singing and it goes like this:

A show is being put on called 'Pretty Lady' and it needs 40 dancers so a lot of the usual's turn up to audition and then Peggy Sawyers turns up but she is too late until they realise that they only have 39 girls instead of 40. For financial reasons the lead woman is someone who cannot dance but her name is worth something so seats will sell on her name but it does mean that they have to cut a lot of the dancing out of the show because she can't dance. Unfortunately she is controlled by an older, wealthy man but she is seeing a younger man and once they get to Philadelphia for opening night things become too much, she upsets the older gentlemen and after the opening night she has an accident and her ankle is broken so Peggy ends up taking on the lead role and saving the day.

Having seen this on stage first the film was a little disappointing but only because the stage work is so fantastic and the lack of colours makes it so much harder to appreciate the set design and the amount of work that would have gone into this show. There were also less songs and one of the main lead women in the stage production did not feature in this film but the plot is the same and the main hits are the same with similar choreography. Ruby Keeler had a good voice and was a good dancer. She's no Audrey Hepburn but she is lovely to watch and as previously stated years ago on this blog you just have to sit back and imagine yourself in the period watching this for the first time. It would have been spectacular. Watching this film helps you to appreciate what they had to work with and just how well they managed to cope with a lack of just about anything that we have now.

Watch this film and then go and see it in the west end because both are fantastic but the west end show has more music and brings the magic into colour and then to life with more music.

Fast and Furious

These films seem to go round in a circle. With Bryan O'Conner (Paul Walker) claiming back his status as 'cop' and going undercover to bring down a drug dealer it seems like they have mashed up the plot of the first two films together and brought back Vin Diesel.

No more Lucas Black, he did one film and that was enough for anyone. Now we are back to the real fast and furious movies, like the first one (which out of the four so far watched is still the best). Undercover, road racing, fast driving, guns and Vin Diesel beating up Paul Walker; everything that you expect and hope for from these movies.

Dom has been away and is back. The opening of the film starts with him and his crew trying to rob a truck (where have we seen that one before?) but it goes wrong . The end of the film finishes with Dom giving himself up, being sentenced to prison and then being busted out of the van transporting him by Bryan and the team. So now we know what to expect from the next film because Bryan will be a wanted man and so will Dom (again) but with them having already taken over Mexico and Tokyo they have to head off to other countries and places, which means Rio in Brazil for the next film. In this film they were trying to clear Dom's name or at least, Bryan was on behalf of Dom's sister but that didn't really work out so in the next film they will all have to try and clear there names. The good news is that there are another four films in which to do so and The Rock starts to appear in the next film so better characters is likely to mean a better script and a more enjoyable film. Even though this film is trying to keep going with the idea that it is the fourth in the series it would be better if we just forgot about the third one and considered it to be the third in the series.

This is a classic action film. Fast cars, some decent driving and a lot of guns and shooting. When you are in an action mood this is definitely one to pick out and watch. It is not as good as the first film but it is better than both the second and third films. Vin Diesel is always Vin Diesel and Paul Walker is always Paul Walker so there really is no point in reviewing their acting performances. Just enjoy it for what it is.

Sleepless in Seattle

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, where have we seen this combination before? The answer, for those of you that could not answer this question is 'You've Got Mail' (although this film came first).

Young Tom Hanks is fathering a son, a young boy who has lost his mother and is suffering. Often when these types of bereavement happen the relationship between the child and the parent is almost severed, it is injured and becomes almost non-existent. Jonah doesn't want a new person in his life, he doesn't like the idea of his mother being replaced (which is understandable) and only takes to one person that they haven't met. With constant references to a Carry Grant movie it is a little hard to take this movie as an original but back in the 90's it was popular to create characters that loved films and made constant references to other famous actors. Arguments take place between Jonah and his father as Jonah wants to go to New York, to stand on the top of the Empire State building  and meet his new mother but his father doesn't want to, he wants to go on a weekend away with Victoria (a woman that he is serious about but Jonah doesn't like). Jonah runs off to New York and his father has to follow him. They end up meeting the new woman at the top of the empire state building after another Carry Grant reference.

I was expecting a lot worse. I don't have the best opinion of Tom Hanks in films having felt that he is often the same person or just very irritating but he was different in this film. He wasn't trying to play the hero or romantic, lovable character, he was trying to play a father who is trying to piece his life back together. A man who has responsibilities and doesn't just drink himself into oblivion. The character was strong but not perfect. The portrayal was good and one of the best from Tom Hanks. The Star award probably goes to Jonah (Ross Malinger) as the driving force in the entire film. His character was similar to the one in 'Love Actually' except that he doesn't play the drums and have Liam Neeson for a dad. He was cool, determined and trying to find his own path in life, to make his life complete again. He was prepared to let the right person into his life but he was very clear that the current woman that Sam (Hanks) was interested in wasn't the right person for him.

Meg Ryan was more of a cameo. The plot was almost split between Seattle and New York, between Alice (Ryan) and Sam (Hanks) but even though she had a lot of screen time she wasn't the main focus of the film and that made it a lot easier. Sleepless in Seattle is a moving film, a short enough film to make it enjoyable and not vomitable in any way.