All Good Things

Friday 20th February 2015

Director: Andrew Jarecki
Year: 2010
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella, Lily Rabe, Philip Baker Hall

Well, this was odd - and perhaps not exactly what I was expecting. I still don't know how much I enjoyed it. I hadn't really heard of the movie before, but it sounded interesting when I saw it was on TV, so decided to give it a try. It turns out that the reason I hadn't heard of the movie was because, even though it has some big names in it, it was never really promoted upon its release, and got a very narrow arts-house release.

Upon watching it, it's not hard to see the reasons for the lack of promotion. It's a tough movie to market. It tells the story of David Marks (Gosling), and his relationship with his father (Langella) and his wife (Dunst). It's apparently 'the most notorious unresolved murder cases in New York history' (according to the movie blurb; I had never heard of it so who knows whether or not this is true) - but this is the part of the problem. The murder case is unresolved, meaning there's no closure in the movie. Now, it's clear that the movie thinks it knows what happened, but it leaves a lot of questions in its wake. Not least of which is 'is this what really happened? How much has this movie made up?!'

Overall, the individual performances aren't bad. Individual elements of the script aren't bad. I even spent chunks of the film being quite intrigued and wondering what would happen next. But somehow All Good Things isn't quite the sum of its parts. I can't really recommend it - it's mostly likely to leave you feeling frustrated and confused - not to mention wanting answers you won't get.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

The Raven

Friday 6th February 2015

Director: James McTeigue
Year: 2012
Stars: John Cusack, Luke Evans, Alice Eve

I wanted to see this when it was released, the subject matter (Edgar Allan Poe - even if this was clearly going to be fictitious) and genre (thriller/ horror) both appealing to me. It didn't get great reviews, but having seen clips of the movie this didn't really put me off. Unfortunately I never got the chance to see it at the cinema, so when it was shown on TV I was fairly determined not to miss it.

Raven is all about a copy-cat murderer who uses Allan Poe's stories to inspire him. It becomes, to some extent, Poe's (Cusack) responsibility to find the killer, as he knows the subject matter of his stories best.

In my opinion, Cusack does a fantastic job of playing Poe, and is a joy to watch. I've always enjoyed him as an actor, but he really does a great job in this role. The film is pretty gory, and initially I wasn't sure if I was watching a gory horror film or a drama about a writer. This improved though, and by the end of the movie I was really enjoying the story. The film has a fair bit to say about whether or not fiction can lead to real-life horror, but also manages to tell a decent story. I'm not entirely sure why this movie got such negative reviews, but I'm glad I chose to ignore them and watch it anyway.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Sinister

Monday 5th January 2015

Director: Scott Derrickson
Year: 2012
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, Michael Hall D'Addario, Clare Foley

This did turn out to be quite Sinister. At first it felt like your bog-standard horror movie, and wasn't doing a great job of drawing me in. To be fair, this wasn't entirely the fault of the movie - it was clearly aiming for a build-up of suspense, and there's only so much build-up you can get when you're having to pause the movie every five minutes to deal with your own screaming toddler (which is a different type of Sinister all of it's very own).

The movie tells the story of Ellison Oswalt (Hawke), a true-crime writer who moves to a house that children were hanged in to find out what happened, and who the killer was. Eventually (and fairly satisfyingly, being that you know he might not), he does find all this out. Although this is a horror movie of course, so it might have better for him not to know...

Once I actually got to sit down and pay attention to this (for the last 40 minutes or so), I did enjoy it. And it did creep me out, which horror movies don't always have the power to do. Although how much of that was down to the movie, and how much of it down to the fact that children were involved and I was dealing with my own horror child, I'm not sure...

Rating: 3 out of 5

Angels and Demons

Saturday 8th March 2014

Director: Ron Howard
Year: 2009
Stars: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor,Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgard

Another movie that we've had sitting waiting to be watched for some time, one of the main reasons we hadn't gotten around to it yet was that it's nearly 2 and a half hours long. This coupled with the fact that neither of us were expecting it to be that good (although I still wanted to watch it) meant it had been ignored for a while.

Angels and Demons was better than expected. The basic premise is, unsurprisingly, quite silly (a scientist [Hanks] has to save the church from a terrorist act), but if you can get over/ ignore this set-up the rest of the movie is quite enjoyable. There's plenty of clue-solving, death and running around in circles, which is fine if you enjoy that sort of thing.

There's not a lot else to say really. If you plan to watch this you probably already know what you're getting yourself into, and you probably won't be too disappointed.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Bad Education

Monday 3rd February 2014

Director: Pedro Almodovar
Year: 2004
Stars: Gael Garcia Bernal, Fele Martinez, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Lluis Homar

This has been hanging around for ages waiting to be watched. I feel bad about it, but it's mostly because it's in Spanish. I have no problem at all with foreign language movies, and often think they're better than their English counterparts. But I just haven't felt like I've had the energy to pay attention to watching a foreign language movie for some time...

... And what a fool I've been. This is one of the most enjoyable movies I've watched for a while. I knew it got good reviews when it was released, and had wanted to see it for a while. It tells the story of Ignacio, a gay man who visits an old lover, Enrique Goded, to see if he'll film his script. At least, that's how the story begins. From this point on there are twists and turns right up to the end of the movie...

Bad Education is a mystery, but it's so mysterious you don't always know what the mystery is until it's revealed. It's a rare movie that can keep a mystery from you and not make you guess what might happen next, but still manage to surprise you when it does.

A really enjoyable watch, Bad Education comes highly recommended.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Let Me In

Saturday 25th January 2014

Director: Matt Reeves
Year: 2010
Stars: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Grace Moretz, Richard Jenkins, Elias Koteas

A few years ago, I watched Let the Right One In. I really, really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it so much that I borrowed the book from a colleague and read it. I loved that too. It's an incredibly unique twist on a vampire story, and I love vampire stories anyway.

Well, Let Me In is the American re-make of Let the Right One In. When I saw it was on TV, I was convinced I hadn't seen it. When I told my husband about it, he was convinced when had. I started to have my doubts, now thinking we probably had seen it and he was right. But when Let Me In began, it didn't feel that familiar. Whilst feeling very, very familiar all at the same time.

This remake is very faithful to the original. It changes the story so little that, although not set in New Mexico, it still feels very Swedish in origin. We came to the conclusion that we hadn't seen this version - the familiarity was just down to the plot. Which made me not 100% sure why they bothered to remake it. Yes, it's not in English. but the Swedish version is just as good. Hubby disagreed with me and said he thought it was definitely worth remaking.

Regardless of whether or not the remake was necessary, it's still a very enjoyable movie and an excellent story.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Watchmen

Sunday 3 November 2013

Director: Zack Snyder
Year: 2009
Stars: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino

I did not feel well this week. Which may go some way towards explaining why I chose to watch a 3-hour comic hero movie that had been sitting, not watched, since 2011.

It actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting. My other half had watched it some months ago when he was ill (I know this because I saw him watching), but he has no memory at all of this event. Which either suggests he was completely out of it when watching it, or the movie is entirely unmemorable.

Watchmen (slowly, in its own sweet time) tells the history of a group of superheroes who have now disbanded, and how they are brought back together in various ways to investigate the killing of one of their old gang.

I perhaps wouldn't go as far as to say this is totally unmemorable, but it is horribly flabby. It just doesn't need to be 3 hours long. There are a bunch of sub-plots and half-explored plots, and all they really do is serve to infuriate. If the central story had been stuck to, but some of the style kept, this could have been a taut, enjoyable 2 hour (max) movie. Unfortunately, it's not.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Number 23

Friday 20th September 2013

Director: Joel Schumacher
Year: 2007
Stars: Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Logan Lerman, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins

I have vaguely wanted to watch this movie for a while, having heard that Jim Carrey is quite good in it - and always having been something of a Jim Carrey fan anyway. But I also had my reservations - I was never entirely convinced by the plot, so didn't necessarily think the movie would actually be any good.

The title of The Number 23 tells you everything you need to know about the plot really. Walter Sparrow's (Carrey) wife (Madsen) finds a book called The Number 23, and Walter becomes obsessed with the number. And that's pretty much the whole premise...

... which isn't actually as bad as it sounds. The conclusion is one of the few that could probably have worked without me either sighing or thinking it was all a bunch of nonsense. So, whilst perhaps not groundbreaking, The Number 23 is at least an enjoyable movie with a vaguely plausible storyline.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Knowing: Film # 134 of Film 365

Friday 3rd February 2012

Director: Alex Proyas
Year: 2009
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson

If Romance and Cigarettes was made to confuse me, Knowing was made to reassure me that there are still such things as Hollywood movies. Almost nothing about this will surprise you - apart from perhaps the ending, which isn't quite as Hollywood as you might expect. And probably all the better for it. Within the first 10 minutes I had pretty much guessed where this was going; but it didn't really mean that getting there was any less enjoyable, as long as you were happy to give in to the standard Hollywood gloss (and, at times, really rather obvious CGI).

Nicolas Cage is John Koestler, a man whose son (Caleb, played by Canterbury) receives a list of numbers when a time capsule is dug up at his school, 50 years after it was buried. It will come as no surprise that the list of numbers is significant, but everybody thinks Cage is mad for believing so - until the final third of the movie.

There's not really much to say about Knowing that you don't know already. It's a perfectly good example of what it is, with a slightly better than average ending. But it isn't going to make my Film of the Year either.

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Film #115 of Film 365

Monday 2nd January 2012

Director: David Fincher
Year: 2011
Stars: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright, Joely Richardson

Having previously watched the Swedish version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and found it rather dull, I was a little sceptical about this Hollywood re-make. However, the trailers were convincing enough to make me think that this version could be a little faster paced.

The Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, like the Swedish film, remains relatively faithful to the book. The movie is still a long one, but somehow doesn't drag its feet in quite the same way. There are still lots of loose ends and sub-plots to tie up, but Fincher manages this is a much more concise way.

It's certainly not going to be my film of the year (or, I certainly hope it won't - if it does, I'll be disappointed with the offerings), but if you've read the book and enjoyed the story, this is worth a watch. It's also one of those rare moments where I prefer the Hollywood remake to the original foreign language version (although I have to admit that I'm still not sure what was going on with those bizarre opening credits).

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Dark: Film #86 of Film 365

Monday 31st October 2011

Director: John Fawcett
Year: 2005
Stars: Maria Bello, Sean Bean, Sophie Stuckey, Abigail Stone

As it was Halloween, watching a horror movie seemed appropriate. We had plenty to choose from (most of them recorded over a year ago), and this seemed to be one of the more interesting things on offer. The Dark is a British movie, set in Wales and playing on Welsh mythology.

In truth, The Dark is more of a psychological thriller than a horror. That's not to say it doesn't have its horrific moments, but it's not really a "jump-in-the-dark" horror movie. The movie starts off well, and seems to have a story to tell. Adelle's (Bello) daughter vanishes, and a child appears in her place. Adelle spends the rest of the movie trying to figure out what has happened to her daughter.

Not all the plot lines take the obvious route, but at times this hinders rather than helps the narrative. The ending is confusing, and a number of plot details were left totally unexplained. I spent some time reading reviews online, and it seems that everybody else was just as confused as I was - or at least in total disagreement about what had actually happened. I wander if the ending is clear in the director's mind?

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Orphan: Film #82 of Film 365

Thursday 20th October 2011

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Year: 2009
Stars: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jimmy Bennett, Aryana Engineer

I had wanted to see this for a while, as I had heard good things about it, but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. It was billed as a horror, but for me it felt more like a psychological thriller. That's not necessarily a bad thing - it's just that the theme was more 'disturbed kid' than 'scary kid'.

The basic premise of Orphan is that Kate and John Coleman lose a child, so decide to adopt Esther - a kid they find in an orphanage who seems pretty sweet - at least in their eyes. Really, she's just kind of creepy.

Orphan is actually a pretty enjoyable movie, as long as you don't start watching it with false expectations. If you want a scary jump-out-your-seat horror movie, this isn't for you. If you want something more psychological, then you'll likely enjoy it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Red Riding Hood: Film #71 of Film 365

Thursday 8th September 2011

Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Year: 2011
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez, Max Irons, Virgina Madsen, Julie Christie

Unlike most holidays, our trip to Canada involved lots of movies. This was primarily because we went to Toronto for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and what's a film festival without watching some movies? So there are a fair few movies for me to blog about over the next few days (weeks?), but my first holiday movie was actually one I watched on the plane.

I had wanted to see Red Riding Hood for a while, primarily because the trailer made it look, well, cool - and very stylised, which I tend to like. I had read a few less-than-positive reviews though, so started to watch it with a slight feeling of trepidation. Valerie (Seyfried) is a young girl who lives in a small village that is terrorised by a werewolf. The werewolf isn't the only problem- Valerie has also fallen in love with a woodcutter, but is engaged to somebody much richer.

At first I wasn't sure why this didn't quite work. There's a not-terribly bad story here, and it does indeed look quite stylish. The problem is, there's just not enough plot for an hour and a half movie. It probably would have made a great 45 minute TV episode, but it just felt like it dragged. An achievement for what is, after all, a pretty short movie!

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Film #68 of Film 365

Saturday 3rd September 2011

Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Year: 2009
Stars: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre, Sven-Bertil Taube

I had wanted to see this for a while, so when I was at a friend's house and it was offered up as one of the choices, I thought it would be a good choice.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a Swedish movie based on the book of the same name, written by Stieg Larsson. I read the book a while ago now, and enjoyed the story. I couldn't really remember a lot of the details though, which was probably a good thing as I could enjoy the movie without knowing exactly what was going to happen.

The problem with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that it follows the book, at times, too faithfully - making for an overly long, drawn-out story. It didn't really feel long and drawn out when I was reading the book, but the film just went on a bit too long. In contrast to how I normally feel about movie adaptations of books, I really wish they'd left some of the detail out here. For example, when we were two hours in, it felt like the story had ended, and fairly satisfactorily - but there was still another half an hour to go...

On the positive side though, I really appreciated the casting. Unlike what I imagine to be inevitable in the Hollywood remake, the criminal wasn't signposted from the beginning, and the hero wasn't gorgeous. Everybody just looked normal - as they should. Special mention has to go to Noomi Rapace, who placed Lisbeth Salander. She does an amazing job of pitching the character perfectly - she really was exactly as I imagined the character in the book.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Super 8: Film #61 of Film 365

Wednesday 17th August 2011

Director: J.J Abrams
Year: 2011
Stars: Joel Courtney, Kyle Chandler, Riely Griffiths, Ryan Lee, Gabriel Basso, Zach Mills, Elle Fanning, Ron Eldard

When I first saw a trailer for Super 8, I was really keen to see it. It made the movie look like it had good characters, a decent plot, and plenty of enjoyable scenes. Then I read a couple of reviews. Now, don't get me wrong, the reviews were positive. But they did mention that all the great characterisation that happens in the first half of the movie is lost to bigger, better alien scenes in the second half of the movie.

The reviews aren't wrong, but it's not as depressing as it sounds. Those alien scenes are needed, or this could just have descended into another Lost - good characterisation meaning you actually care about the characters, and then a big fat pile of nothing when you realise there's no decent ending. Thankfully, that doesn't happen here. The second half does include some cheesy scenes, but these don't feel so bad because you really do like, and care about, almost every character in Super 8 (and certainly all the ones you are supposed to).

Rating: 4 out of 5

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Film #55 of Film 365

Monday 18th July 2011

Director: Chris Columbus
Year: 2001
Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Ian Hart, Alan Rickman

Some days are rubbish. When there's too much work, too much to do, and too many things to worry about, Harry Potter may well be the answer. The first couple of movies, anyway. You know which ones I mean - the cute sweet ones that leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. The perfect option for a Monday night.

I haven't seen the final movie yet (it's on my list...), so watching them in order as they are shown on TV, starting with Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, seemed like a good alternative. Especially on a Monday night when I needed that warm fuzzy cuddle.

By now I'm sure you all know the story...  a young boy finds out his parents were actually a witch and wizard, and from there ends up at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he meets his best friends, Ron and Hermione.

 There's not a lot else to say - just that sometimes you need that big movie cuddle.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Taking Lives: Film #44 of Film 365

Wednesday 8th June 2011

Director: D.J Caruso
Year: 2004
Stars: Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland

I thought I might have seen this before - the plot sounded familiar, but I wasn't 100% sure. If I'd read my own blog post, I would have known I had indeed watched it a couple of years ago!

My opinion of it hasn't much changed either - although watching scenes of Montreal and Quebec was a little more interesting this time, considering we're hoping to visit there quite soon. And the final scene gets a little bit dafter with each viewing too.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Mirrors: Film #36 of Film 365

Monday 23rd May 2011

Director: Alexandre Aja
Year: 2008
Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton, Cameron Boyce, Erica Gluck, Amy Smart

A psychological horror movie starring Kiefer Sutherland. What's not to like? It turns out, quite a lot. This isn't a bad movie - it's just a really, really mediocre one.

Kiefer Sutherland plays a detective who has been suspended and ends up taking a job at a burnt-down department store to make ends meet. After he starts working there, strange nasty things start to happen involving mirrors.

There are no surprises here. If you've ever watched a horror movie before you'll see what's coming around every corner. The ending does redeem the movie slightly, but not enough to make it worth watching.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Hanna: Film #34 of Film 365

Saturday 7th May 2011

Director: Joe Wright
Year: 2011
Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander

Two films in two days? What's going on? Admittedly this was mostly fluke - a couple of friends wanted to go to the cinema, and as we hadn't seen them for ages and weren't busy, we happily said yes.

I wasn't sure about Hanna though. I'd heard pretty good things about it, and the trailer had certainly got me intrigued. But one thing was putting me off - I'm really not a Cate Blanchett fan. There aren't many of her films I've enjoyed, and her accents really, really annoy me. But it was chosen out of a number of options by our friends, so I went with it (although really I want to Scream 4. Why doesn't anybody else?).

Thankfully, Cate Blanchett didn't ruin it for me this time around. I actually really enjoyed Hanna - the music and visual imagery especially felt so refreshing. I'd happily watch more action films like this (for that is really what it is, albeit a fairly intelligent one). That's not to say it didn't have some problems - overthinking the plot meant some things didn't necessarily make sense - although they could all be explained away. And the ending wouldn't have been my preferred one - I wish it had stopped five minutes earlier. But then, that's probably just personal taste.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Source Code: Film #32 of Film 365

Wednesday 27th April 2011

Director: Duncan Jones
Year: 2011
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga

Well, this was a nice surprise. As I read more and more reviews of this, I became more convinced I wanted to see it. But I was still a little sceptical that it would run away with the plot too much, and just be entirely unconvincing. So what a lovely surprise it was to watch a film that was actually cleverer than it seemed to think it was. Usually the reverse is the case.

Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) is a soldier who is sent back in time, to when a train blows up, in order to try and find the man who has bombed the train. There's a lot more to the story than that, but that's all you really need to know to get a sense of the movie.

Every time I thought there was a gaping plot hole here, the movie answered my question. It's a neat, tidy thriller with a satisfying ending. It'll probably hurt your brain a bit, but in a good way.

Rating: 4 out of 5