May 2009 films

This month has been pretty quiet film-wise; there have just been other things to do, like enjoying all this beautiful sunshine. You can't do that in a cinema! That's not to say I haven't managed to watch any films - the list for this month is:

• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
• Night at the Museum (2006)
• The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
• Coraline 3D (2009)
• Little Red Flowers (2006)

Once again, the majority of these films have been watched on TV - but there are only 5 to choose from, so that's 20% at the cinema! Picking best and worst films isn't so hard either, what with so few to choose from. Although, as there are only a few, I've been pretty selective and none of them live up to worst film of the year by a long way.

Best film easily goes to Coraline 3D. Whilst the others certainly had things going for them, this is the most memorable. Had it not been the 3D version The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas may well have beaten it, but it being in 3D, for me, just gives it that edge.

Film not to waste your time on goes to either Little Red Flowers or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. As I'm finding it hard to decide, I'll pump for Little Red Flowers. This is the one I gave the lower rating to (by 0.5), but the film has grown on me considerably since I wrote the review. It's very memorable and I respect that my understanding of Chinese cinema is likely not good enough to fully understand the meaning behind it - I'm going to choose to believe there was one, and probably quite a powerful one, at that! I am by no means suggesting that you shouldn't watch either of the two above films - they both, for example, happily beat April's film not to waste your time on, Highlander: The Source. And a bunch of other mediocre movies for that matter too.

Film of the month: Coraline 3D
Film not to waste your time: Little Red Flowers