Hidalgo

Friday 31st January 2014

Director: Joe Johnston
Year: 2004
Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif, Zuleikha Robinson, Louise Lombard

Another movie that has been sitting around for ages waiting to be watched, we're finally making an attempt to get through them all. 12 to go after this one, which isn't bad!

Hidalgo isn't quite what I was expecting it to be. I knew it involved horses, and I knew it had Viggo Mortensen in it. I was expecting it to be a little more serious than it was though. It tells the tale of Frank T. Hopkins (Mortensen), who was an American horse rider who entered a lot of long distance horse races.

Hidalgo is about his entry into a horse race across the Arabian desert, and how the odds were stacked against him. I'm pretty sure a lot of what happens here is made up, because the movie veers into silly action adventure a number of times, with some proper Disney-like evil characters who are trying to kill Hopkins and his horse.

None of this is to say that the movie isn't fun, it's fast-paced, a fun story and kept me watching. It's just also quite silly in places.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Django Unchained

Sunday 4th August 2013

Director: Quentin Tarantino
Year: 2012
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson

Well, this was an unexpected, but very pleasant, surprise. I wanted to watch Django Unchained when it was released at the cinema earlier in the year - but you try going to see a 3 hour movie with a 6 month old baby. It doesn't seem totally fair on the babysitter.

So when my hubby's grandparents suggested we go and watch it, I wasn't going to refuse. And I wasn't disappointed. To some extent, if you know it's a Tarantino movie, and you've seen the trailer, you should know approximately what you're going to get. I did, and I was more than happy with it.

In Django, the lead character (Foxx), a freed slave, goes in search of his wife, who is working on a different plantation. Remember that this is a 3 hour long Tarantino movie, so things get somewhat more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea. There's lots of swearing and shooting and blood, but that was all OK with me. One of those movies I love, but where my mum sits there going "I don't know why you watched that, they all end up dead anyway". (And I don't think that's giving anything anyway - partially because it's only half true).

Rating: 4 out of 5

A Fistful of Dollars: Film #140 of Film 365

Sunday 19th February 2012

Director: Sergio Leone
Year: 1964
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, Gian Maria Volonte, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp

Having watched Pale Rider, an ‘80s cowboy movie starring and directed by Clint Eastwood, in the not-too-distant past, I was quite keen to watch A Fistful of Dollars. It’s one of Sergio Leone’s– and Clint Eastwood’s- more famous Western movies from the ‘60s, and I was expecting to quite enjoy it.

Like many Clint cowboy movies, Eastwood plays something of a loner who turns up in a town and causes havoc. Unlike Preacher (Eastwood's role in Pale Rider), he’s not a complete hero here – more of an anti-hero. Joe (Eastwood) is essentially a good guy (he helps a family escape the law of the town), but (and if you know anything about Westerns this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise) most people end up dead- and this is mostly due to Joe.

A Fistful of Dollars didn’t really feel like it had anything new or innovative in it. In fairness, this might be due to the fact that it is a movie from the ‘60s, and there have been a lot of copy-cat movies since. But for me, it all just felt a little, well, ordinary.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Pale Rider: Film #95 of Film 365

Sunday 27th November 2011

Director: Clint Eastwood
Year: 1985
Stars: Clint Eastwood, Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Sydney Penny, Chris Penn

I keep telling myself I should watch more Westerns. I really enjoy them, and there are plenty of them on TV - especially with the recent Clint Eastwood season on Channel 5. I had recorded two - A Fistful of Dollars and this, Pale Rider. Dan decided we should go for this as it was a bit more recent - which turned out not to be a bad choice.

It may be a little more recent than many Westerns, but Pale Rider has all the elements of a traditional Western genre movie, and I loved it for it. Bad cowboys who hunt down the good guys, gun fights in a proper old-style Western town, and a mysterious stranger (Preacher - no surprises that this is Eastwood's role).

Like all good Westerns, the story had me waiting to see how the good guys would win (they always win - traditional, remember?), if the mysterious stranger would stay, and exactly how many fights there would be. What I especially liked about Pale Rider was the fact that the mysterious stranger stayed strange - far better than the recent too-often hashed together explanation of a character that makes no sense.

If you like "proper" Westerns, you'll more than likely love this. If you hate them, stay well away. Thankfully, I like them and could watch many more... maybe when I'm retired I can just sit and watch them on daytime TV every afternoon?

Rating: 4 out of 5

Appaloosa: Film #6 of Film 365

Monday 21st March 2011

Director: Ed Harris
Year: 2008
Stars: Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellwegger, Jeremy Irons

For much of this movie, I wasn't sure what to make of it. At times it felt as if it was trying to be something more than it really was. I decided I would give it the benefit of the doubt, and wait until the ending before I came to a decision.

Appaloosa is all about two gunmen, Virgil Cole (Harris) and Everett Hitch (Mortensen), who are hired to rid the town of Appaloosa of the Bragg gang. Various Western-type events ensue, including the obvious love interest, a murder trial and lots of shooting.

After being fairly patient with the movie I determined that it was, in fact, trying to be something more it was. Appaloosa tries very hard to be like a classic Western, but updated for a modern age. Unfortunately, it succeeds only in not being quite as good as a classic Western. If you're looking for a modern take on the Western genre, try True Grit instead. True Grit is everything Appaloosa wanted to be.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

True Grit

Wednesday 16th February 2011

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Year: 2010
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfield, Josh Brolin

I had some reservations about going to watch this. I wasn't convinced I wanted to see a Coen brothers movie before I heard any reviews for True Grit, or saw any of the trailers. But then I heard a number of positive reviews and slowly began to change my mind. However, I've been sucked in by glowing reviews before - and often regretted listening to them. The warning bells on this one really started to ring when I heard the words "and the cinematography is truly amazing..."

Well, it turns out that was true - the cinematography is indeed stunning. The movie was only a minute in and I was already thinking how wonderful the film looked. Thankfully, the rest of the review was true too. This really is a great movie. The story is engaging, the acting first class, the dialogue fantastic, and the directing more impressive than I was expecting. It's possible that my fear of it being bad meant I enjoyed it all the more, but it's still a highly recommendable film.

True Grit was made before, in 1969, with John Wayne in the lead role. He received an Oscar for his efforts playing Rooster Cogburn. I haven't seen that version, but plan to seek it out at some point - it'd be interesting to compare the two, although from what I understand they are very different movies. The basic story, if you don't know it, is that Mattie Ross (Steinfield) wants revenge on the man who killed her father, and hires Rooster Cogburn to help her get it. Special mention has to go to Steinfield - she is so convincing as the headstrong teenager who knows what she wants, and will work hard get it. Hers is the best piece of acting I've seen in some time.

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Saturday 12th February 2011

Director: Andrew Dominik
Year: 2007

Stars: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell

I'm still not entirely sure what I think of this. I think it's a movie you really have to be in the right mood for, and we most definitely weren't. It's incredibly atmospheric, and you have to sit down and enjoy the atmosphere. When you're at a friend's house with their 4-month-old baby, that's so hard to do. It's also a very long movie. This in itself wasn't really a problem, but it being atmospheric AND long was.

Having said all this, the ending of the movie still generated conversation amongst those of us who were watching it, so it must have had an interesting point to make. It tells the story of Jesse James, and how he finally met his death at the hands of Robert Ford (considering the title of the movie, I don't think that's giving very much away). It's not so much about the fact that James dies, but about the events leading up to it and the way in which it happens.

Very definitely a movie in the western genre, the atmosphere is almost a character itself here - hence the reason for finding it so hard to get immersed into. It gets 3 stars, but whether this has more to do with how good the film is or my mood at the time is hard to say. Granted, an opinion of a film always has to do with the mood you watch that film in... but a truly rubbish movie can bring you down when you're perfectly happy, and a brilliant movie can lift your spirits even if you're feeling horribly depressed. Here, there was no change in my mood. At all.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Friday 21st January 2011

Young Guns

Director: Christopher Cain
Year: 1988
Stars: Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko

Yes, I've seen this. Yes, I love it. I've always loved it, from the first time I saw it. Although I actually saw Young Guns II first, and have seen that sequel a lot more times than this original. But for Christmas I was (wonderfully, happily) bought Young Guns (along with Lost Boys and Grease- what could be better?) by a friend as something to play on our new, shiny blu-ray player. Now, we did watch this at her house over Christmas, but I was tired and it was late, so I fell asleep half way through (resulting in me deciding it wasn't really fair to blog about it at the time).

Anyway, due to me feeling lazy and a bit ill, I decided I'd give the extras on this blu-ray a go, as I knew there was a 50 minute long documentary on the history of the real Billy the Kid. This, eventually, resulted in me watching the whole movie again, with some trivia bits turned on during it. Having just heard about the true history of the Kid actually made the film feel really fresh to me. I now knew what was true and what the filmmakers had taken artistic licence with. It didn't ruin the movie at all for me, just made me see it from a different perspective.

Something else that made me view the movie in a new light was the quality of the picture. I'm sure it was just as good at my friend's house, but I was tired then. Watching it now, fully awake, I was very aware of the fact that plants looked pink, rather than that murky green/grey they had always been on TV in the past. HD really does make a difference when you think you know something well!

For those of you who don't know the story, Young Guns is all about Billy the Kid, an American outlaw in the late 1880s in the USA. He was based in New Mexico and lived and died there - spending a lot of his time rustling cattle and killing men. Something of an antihero, it's a famous story with a lot of background you probably don't know (I didn't, until I watched the documentary).

It's a great movie, although not exactly the most serious. I love it for its clear love of Billy the Kid and comedic, fun atmosphere. It tells a story about a Wild West we'd all love to believe existed, but is probably mostly just the result of our imaginations. This isn't a serious, high-brow movie. But it is a lot of fun - my favourite kind. Especially when I need cheering up!

Rating: 5 out of 5

Friday 23rd April 2010

The Magnificent Seven

Director: John Sturges
Year: 1960
Stars: Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen

I was planning on watching High Noon, but when I sat down to watch it, it turned out not to be the classic Western, but some modern thing with Emilie de Ravin (Clare from Lost) in it. Feeling rather disappointed and not at all interested, I tried to find something a bit more, well, Western to watch. The only thing I found was The Magnificent Seven.

I have to confess to never having seen this before - or Seven Samurai, which it is based on. So it was a whole new experience for me, and for the most part a good one. The basic plot is that seven cowboys go to a town near the Mexican border to try and save the farmers from a gang who have been terrorising them.

The film starts off really well and I was very glad I'd picked it to watch. The introduction to all the characters really draws you in and is a lot of fun. Likewise, the end is incredibly enjoyable. Unfortunately the film lags a little in the middle half and could really have done with being that bit shorter. If it had been, this would have been a truly great film rather than just a pretty good one.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Monday 22nd March 2010

Hang 'em High

Director: Ted Post
Year: 1968
Stars: Clint Eastwood

Not being able to decide quite what I wanted to watch, I ended up choosing a Western I had recorded a week or two ago. I tend to love Westerns when I watch them, but don't watch that many of them. So this was my attempt to start rectifying that - I've noticed that the Magnificent Seven (which I'm sorry to say I've never seen) is on next week too, so I'll try and watch that as well!

This Western tells the tale of Jed Cooper (Eastwood), a man who is nearly hanged by a group of cowboys who mistakenly think he stole a man's cattle and killed the owner. However, Cooper escapes the hanging and is out to seek revenge.

This is a later Eastwood Western, so in terms of his character you pretty much know what you're getting. And right up until five minutes before the end, I was enjoying being absorbed into a decent story with all the elements of a "proper" Western. So it came as a bit of a surprise, and something of a shame, when the ending was so disappointing.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Sunday 7th March 2010

Seraphim Falls

Director: David von Ancken
Year: 2006
Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Liam Neeson

We started to watch this quite late on Saturday night, and I almost instantly fell asleep. In my defence a) I was tired and didn't realise quite how tired, b) it's really quite a slow film and c) there's not a LOT of talking to keep you engaged.

The film follows Gideon (Brosnan) as he tries to escape Carver (Neeson), who is hunting him down. We don't know why, but there are plenty of clues to let you know there's more to the story than meets the eye - the main question being who is really the bad guy here?

It's a slow movie, but it's not a bad one. It's good to see a new Western movie, something there aren't much of these days. Although there isn't much talking, there are plenty of visual cues and it's a stunning movie to look at. One of the scenes that sticks in my mind is simply one of a beautiful sky. Perhaps not the best movie you'll ever see, but different to a lot of what exists at the moment, and worth a look for that at least.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Saturday 14th March

Young Guns II: Blaze of Glory

Director: Geoff Murphy
Year: 1990
Stars: Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christian Slater, William Petersen

I've seen this film before. Thousands of times, actually. And I still love it. The first time I saw it I must have been about 12 or 13, it was fairly late at night and randomly on TV. The combination of the Billy the Kid legend, the old American west and the brat pack held a massive appeal for me at that age. Still does, actually.

Kiefer Sutherland has been my favourite actor ever since I saw Young Guns II (I saw it before the first one, but that really doesn't matter to understanding the plot of either film). I've seen both Young Guns I and II so many times now that my brother still refers to Kiefer as "Doc", even when I'm watching 24 (seriously, there was no way I wasn't going to watch 24 from the beginning - it has my favourite actor EVER in it).

So when Young Guns II came on TV yesterday afternoon it seemed like a really good excuse to sit down and revisit past loves. I wasn't disappointed - but I knew I wouldn't be. I've seen it too many times to not know basically every scene. I realise I'm entirely biased due to my childhood (I still don't get why critics hate it. It's not serious but it's hardly bad), but this is, and probably always will be, one of my favourite films ever. With my favourite actor ever. (Oh, and Bon Jovi wrote the soundtrack. My favourite singer ever too). I feel 12 again.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Wednesday 7th January

Australia

Director: Baz Luhrman
Year: 2008
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Brandon Walters

In an attempt to start going to the cinema a bit more often (my cinema visits got fewer and fewer in the second half of 2008, and I miss them), this was the first film I saw there this year. And it turned out to be a good choice, thankfully.

The critics hadn't been overly kind to this film, mostly calling it mediocre at best. The one thing it had going for it was that they claimed it was clearly a Baz Luhrman film. Being that I've loved every one of his films that I've seen in the past, I thought this was reason enough to see it.

On that point at least, the critics were right. Some of the more bizarre shots that you wouldn't normally seen in an epic were clearly the director's creations. In fact, this is what I loved about the film. It was indeed epic in length, but not so much in style. However, the pieces that were missing were the things I often hate about epics. Essentially, it didn't feel pretentious, there was no overacting (although there were a few lingering shots on the main characters), and it wasn't desperately trying to win Oscars (I don't think - it didn't feel like it anyway).

The film is long (it has a running time of 2 hours 45 minutes), but at no point did I not care about the characters or what was happening to them. Special mention also has to go to Brandon Walters, the boy who plays Nullah - an amazing performance from an actor in a pretty decent cast.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5