| Movie | Rating | Review | Date | Your Rating | Match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three Wishes for Cinderella - Unrated |
It's hard for me to properly rate this film now: I saw it in the mists of my childhood, and I've never forgotten it. It left deep and fond memories, and is far and away my favourite version of the Cinderella story, although departing quite radically from the version normally given in US films. While you might recognise some elements of the more familiar story here, the central Cinderella character is much stronger than that often portrayed, and hunts the woods with a crossbow. With its snow-scapes this is a film I associate with winter, and for little other reason than that, Christmas. Maybe as I've grown up a bit since then I would find I have outgrown it if I saw it again, but I doubt it. Like The Singing Ringing Tree, it had the feel of a magical, timeless film, Whenever you feel Winter gathering its cowl around you, I'd fling another log on the fire (if appropriate), hunt down this twinkling fairy tale, and bring it to life on a home screen. Great stuff. |
May 30, 2012 | N/A | |||
| Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - R | September 20, 2011 | N/A | ||||
| The Tree of Life - PG-13 |
This was definitely a movie that I needed to consider after walking out of the theater. While watching it I admired it's spectacle, but I was often thinking about the director's argument in the film. The film is not content to let an experience wash over you, but requires that you consider the world as viewed through the movie. So when I left the theater I was wondering whether I thought it had achieved it's goals, and whether or not I liked it beyond the spectacle. On the whole, it's fair to say that I did. A few images seem a little self-conscious though, and that being the case I'm not sure they therefore work as well as they might. Still, it's a film I would certainly watch again, and one that stayed with me afterwards. I won't bore you with further thoughts here, but if you want to know what I thought in more detail see here |
September 20, 2011 | N/A | |||
| Transformers: Dark of the Moon - PG-13 |
There seems, to me at least, to be a popular movement that enjoys rubbishing Michael Bay movies. I don't know the guy, but this seems a little unnecessary. That's not to say that this movie is any great shakes. It really isn't. It's a sprawling 2+ hours of robots ripping each other up held loosely together by an extensive line-up of ham actors and models. Did I expect anything else? No, not really. I got pretty much what I paid for. Perhaps the film was a bit overlong, and could have done with some serious script editing - characters appear and disappear without there being any real need for them to be on screen at all, except to provide space for an amusing cameo. Most notable amongst these are John Malkovich as Shia LeBeouf's boss, and Jon Jeong, who plays a character called , 'Deep W(h)ang'. Both are cookie-cutter throwaways, but they do serve to bring a little needed humour to the whole event. |
July 10, 2011 | N/A | |||
| Live Free or Die Hard - PG-13 | July 10, 2011 | N/A | ||||
| Monsters - R |
I enjoyed this film, and found it easy to become emersed in it. My one niggle was that I was aware of how it had been filmed in advance of seeing it, and therefore spent a lot of my time watching the film wondering how they had captured various parts of the footage (i.e 'Did they just wander up to a bunch of firemen and start acting next to them, in order to make it out to be monster-related accident?' Not quite, it turns out). As others have said, this is not an action-packed movie - it is more focused on the journey and flowering relationship between the two actors than the fear of the monsters - but that is it's intention: 'to put people in a world where the monsters have become part of their world'. |
May 23, 2011 | N/A | |||
| Hanna - PG-13 | Well acted and well cast, but the film was a bit predictable, and seemed too derivative of other projects - Leon (The Professional), Kickass, Battle-Angel Alita for it to truly soar. | May 20, 2011 | N/A | |||
| The Expendables - R | A great line up for a tongue-and-cheek action film. However the film never really gets off the ground, and for the most part plods along lamely. | May 20, 2011 | N/A | |||
| My Neighbor Totoro - G | May 11, 2011 | N/A | ||||
| Norwegian Wood - Unrated |
This is a hard movie to rate. It certainly inspired me to read the book, which had been sitting on my shelf for, like, ever. And, boy, did I laugh throughout this movie. I'm just not sure I was supposed to. it's not that the acting is bad - it isn't. And if I'm fair then the script does a good job of giving the book's narrative. It also highlights it's silliness. The book is an interesting read. I'm not sure it's actually as deep as it wants to be, but interesting nonetheless. But stuck on screen... it just doesn't work. Everyone treated sex like the proverbial handshake, and oh my goodness, the conversations were ridiculous. Would I recommend it? Not really, but it's an interesting attempt at translating a book nonetheless. |
April 23, 2011 | N/A | |||
| Powaqqatsi - G | Well... what can I say? The story needs a bit of work (ha ha). Again, like it's predecessor, this is an interesting curiosity, but there are so many ways to see the Earth in movies now that this is basically redundant, unless you are feeling reaallly in the mood for something meditative. | April 21, 2011 | N/A | |||
| Koyaanisqatsi - Life Out of Balance - Unrated |
I love long movies, and I love movies that immerse you into an experience, so, I was looking forward to watching Koyaanisqatsi - seeing the world to music. "Interesting idea", I thought. If I'm honest, though, this works best as background wallpaper. Or perhaps as an alternative to getting stoned. There are so many better alternatives these days, that's it's hard to recommend this film except to fulfil curiosity. |
April 21, 2011 | N/A | |||
| Source Code - PG-13 |
This film unquestionably has style. Unfortunately, what it lacks in spades is substance. Even accepting the premise the movie is based on the denouement becomes catastrophically unravelled. And the premise itself doesn't work. It just begs too many questions. And here I'm going to give a small spoiler: the idea that using the reconstruction of someone's memories to rebuild the scene on the train simply will not hold water, since the person's frame of reference is too small. At the very least the premise needed a rewrite to allow the reconstruction of the scene from mulitple individuals: that would have welded shut that leaky barrel. The ending is so silly, however, that fixing it requires either changing it entirely or adding some serious explanation involving quantum entanglement (and if you go for the latter, then this requires a set-up earlier in the film). Throw all logical story telling aside however, and you have a well acted piece of drama that is enjoyable as far as it goes. i.e. not very far. |
April 15, 2011 | N/A | |||
| Despicable Me - PG | While I didn't laugh continually throught this, I certainly did laugh.... if for nothing else but from the characterisation of the 'minions'.... and of the jokes that must have gone straight over the heads of most of the target audience (and into the ears of former Lehman Brothers employees, ... ahem...). Is the story predictable? Yep. But in this case it doesn't matter, since the story is in large part a hanger for some wonderful visual humour. | November 27, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Man on Wire - PG-13 | Phillipe Peit's wirewalk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center was incredible. But at what cost? The film only skims the surface of this quesion, instead focusing principally on Petit's personal narration of the run up to the walk. His passion is infectious, and I'm glad his story has been told. In some respects, however, the film feels a little like the poor cousin to Enter the Void (which also used narration followed by reinactment), and I'd like to have seen more footage of his wider life, and relationships than was presented here | November 25, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 - PG-13 |
You know one of the biggest problems I have trying to judge this film? I've read the book. When I saw the first Harry Potter films I had not actually read the books at the stage, so I wasn't going to run around comparing it to the book. However, this one I read first. I mean, I wasn't going to wait for find out how everything ended, was I? Anyway, that aside... I liked the film a lot. I like the fact that the story's been drawn out into two films, and that the filmmakers are not afraid to let the characters stumble about a bit. I'm not sure how anyone who's not famililar with the previous stories is going to have any chance of following this, but I, personally, enjoyed it. |
November 22, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Moon - R | Okay, I know everyone loved this, but I have to be honest, I found this a bit too predictable for my taste - at least insofar as it followed a fairly predictable formula. That's not to say its a bad film: it isn't. And considering it's budget the crew did a great job, but I just didn't find the story interesting or satisfying enough to engage me. | November 22, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Ip Man - R |
This movie has become immensely popular, and while it's certainly okay, I don't really get it ... and the reason I don't get it is that its nemises are such total caractures: the Japanese are plain evil in this, and it's just too much. They are like cartoon characters. I suppose there are similar things in other Hong Kong movies - where either the English or the Japanese are depicted in cartoon devilishness (including something like Drunken Master II, and the film can still be enjoyed for its martial arts displays. But it ruins any suspension of disbelief. That aside, then, yes, Donnie Yen's display of Wing Chun is cool to watch, and creates the desire to imitate afterwards. ... Many a person's been caught waving their forearms around in a cross between The Karate Kid and Ip Man, so on that level it's worth a peek. |
November 19, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Inception - PG-13 |
No doubt there are going to be lots of opinons about this one. Nolan has, I believe, talked about the cyberspace films of the late 90's, such as Matrix being an influence, along with Dark City, and I'm sure it's possible to piece together lots and lots of other references, from film and literature (and it seems to me to be a descendant of Neuromancer, though messing with reality was not new in William Gibson's day and has taken many strands since). There is also no question that this is going to be a memorable film - because, even if it had a heap of holes in it, (a) it is entertaining, and (b) it leaves you with a whole bunch of questions, since the script and the images on screen are deliberately designed to make you question each scene. is it ultimately full of holes? Well, in the absence of any direct statements from the director I think that is a question that requires mulitple viewings and some thought. This is not a film I would recommend to everyone - because there are people who simply will not like it. If you don't want to think you can still watch it and let the images and action drift over you, but you will leave feeling a little dissatisfied. And, because the music pounds constantly, you may feel that it removes emotional depth from the characters, giving the film a functional heist feel. I love the music, but I did think that it was responsible for cutting the emotional edge from the piece a little. Nevertheless the detailed construction that Chris Nolan has done is great, and I hope this film does well. I rather suspect I'll be watching it again soon to test my thoughts about the narrative... |
July 19, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Clash of the Titans - PG-13 |
I have a passion for stories of derring-do in days of Classic yore and, even as a remake, I was keen to see a good bit of on-screen mythology. Unfortunately was a poor man's knock-up, 'ham'mered from pieces of worm-ridden wood, and barely deserving of it's title. 'Thud of the Raiders' would have been more appropriate. |
April 16, 2010 | N/A | |||
| 24 Hour Party People - R |
Much better than I expected, although it contains gratuitous display of sex activity that seems to pepper Michael WInterbottom's films - and in this case the act in question isn't even justified on any alledged committment to biography in the film, since, according to the individuals concerned it didn't happen. SInce the film is shot in a style that declares it to be an historical account I find this sort of thing quite annoying. Judging it entirely on it's style, however, it is generally very effective indeed. |
January 27, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus - R | Is it terrible? Of course it is. No-one would really expect otherwise would they? The script and acting are just how anyone would imagine:sequoia like. But there is some level of entertainment to be had here. And there are times to give the cinematography credit - the opening shots of Alaska work well enough, for instance. Watch it, if you want totally dumb entertainment that you can cringe at. Otherwise give it the wide berth it deserves. | January 26, 2010 | N/A | |||
| Dead Poets Society - PG | January 22, 2010 | N/A | ||||
| O Brother, Where Art Thou? - PG-13 | January 22, 2010 | N/A | ||||
| L'Enfer - Unrated |
Okay, there are two films with the title, L'Enfer, both of which star Emmanuel Beart. This one blows. San Fin my ass. |
January 1, 2010 | N/A |
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