In the midst of my jet lag induced tiredness, I decided to take the adventure down to the cinema to see a good film, and we (Adam, Sarah, Ffion and I) chose to see Orphan. And the result, one of the best horrors I've seen in a long time. Well, since Drag Me To Hell. The only horror to top Drag Me To Hell in my opinion - so far - is 30 Days Of Night, which I'm annoyed to discover the second installment of the trilogy will be going straight to DVD. Anyway, back to the review.
The story, as you could probably guess, is about an orphan named Esther, who gets adopted by the husband and wife duo of John and Kate after losing out on their baby. She seems perfect for them, she's polite and gets on with her adoptive parents' youngest (but not so much their oldest), Max. And she likes to be different, until unpleasant things start to happen, all revolving around Esther.
The films scariness comes from the dread you feel whenever you see Esther in a scene. Esther takes Max under her wing, by simply threatening her with death unless Max does what Esther says, which gets immediately irritating for the audience at how this 9 year old, Esther, can force a child as young as Max, who I guess to be around 5 years old, not to tell anyone what Esther's doing, forcing a number of audience members to groan in frustration as Max lies to her parents in fear of what would happen if she tells. One of the main strong points of the film is how much Esther angries the audience into hating this monster of a child.
Isabelle Fuhrman, Esther, played the demonic psycho-child brilliantly, as I said earlier, causing the audience to absolutely despise her, me included, and some actually cheering and clapping when Kate hits Esther near the end of the film. But, I must question the director for one scene in the film, Jaune Collette-Saume, for making an 11 year old actress try and seduce a grown, maybe 40 year old man, her adoptive father. That scene was insanely creepy and disturbing, but Fuhrman, has balls to do that.
Sadly though, only the kids are the other quality actors in the film, with John (Peter Saarsgard) annoyingly oblivious to the obvious insanity surrounding Esther and he's a sex freak, taking to having sex with Kate over the island in their kitchen and Kate (Vera Farmiga) is not a very strong lead actress, and generally being annoying.
Unfortunately, the film hasn't been reviewed very highly, with it only receiving 2 stars from 5 by Empire, but I will be much more generous and give it 6.9/10. A genuinely entertaining horror, recommended to everyone who likes horror films.
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
G-Force
This is going to be a short review as it really hasn't got much to talk about.
I'm not going to beat around the bush here and try and make it sound promising, but it was the worst film I've seen in a long time. The trailer seems really promising making me laugh every time I watch it, but the film is god awful. The humour is for children 11 and under (my brother thought it was really good, obviously), even though it's a PG which usually means older kids will like it too. But no. The humour was stupid, the characters were very stereotypical ("The mole is the mole!") and the acting from the real people in it is awful. The only redeeming factor was that Hurley (the fat one, obviously) made me laugh twice I think.
On the plus side, the action scenes were pretty good. But, err, that's it.
Truth be told, you'd probably get more fun out of watching the trailer for 90 mins than sit through that.
1.8/10. Just abysmal.
I'm not going to beat around the bush here and try and make it sound promising, but it was the worst film I've seen in a long time. The trailer seems really promising making me laugh every time I watch it, but the film is god awful. The humour is for children 11 and under (my brother thought it was really good, obviously), even though it's a PG which usually means older kids will like it too. But no. The humour was stupid, the characters were very stereotypical ("The mole is the mole!") and the acting from the real people in it is awful. The only redeeming factor was that Hurley (the fat one, obviously) made me laugh twice I think.
On the plus side, the action scenes were pretty good. But, err, that's it.
Truth be told, you'd probably get more fun out of watching the trailer for 90 mins than sit through that.
1.8/10. Just abysmal.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
The end is approaching. It's approaching fast. Too fast, for my liking. Harry Potter has two films left. And I found that rather depressing. Just as I was feeling after coming out of the film today.
And before you think, no, I didn't hate the film at all. It was absolutely brilliant. But I was very sad after the loss of a very beloved character, I'm sure all of you know who it was, but I won't say, just in case. The film actually managed to reduce me to tears. They weren't very big tears, but tears they were. I have never cried at a film or a book before. This film and the final Harry Potter book have made me do so. Good work, JKR.
Before I begin, I have to point out that Harry Potter brings people together. I know that's terribly cheesy, but that's what happened with me and my friends. And that's what happened in the cinema. I arrived early, so there were about 15 people in there. And we were all talking to eachother about Harry Potter, having a joke. I'd never met half of these people before. But that's what a good book series does. More of the same please.
The opening second got me all excited about the film. All it was, was dark clouds, and the Warner Bros. logo. But that was enough to get me hyper and realise "Harry Potter 6 is here!" and there was a shared emotion of the same context throughout the cinema. And that excitement continued throughout the whole 153 minutes of it. Something that hasn't kept me gripped so much since...well...anything. Transformers...well you know my opinion on that. The Dark Knight was incredibly long, and even though it's an amazing film, there was a time around 2/3 of the way through that I just wanted it to end. It seemed to drag on longer than it needed to. Lord of the Rings, I feel the exact same. But with Harry Potter I was completely absorbed. I knew exactly what was happening throughout the film as I read the book (again...) very recently, but I was still whispering "No, don't do it!" even though I knew they were going to do it.
The special effect sequences were just brilliant to watch, and whoever did them deserves huge credit for that. When Dumbledore made that incredible circle of fire around him and Harry in the cave, I was amazed.
The acting was good too, especially amongst Slughorn (Broadbent), Snape (Rickman) and Dumbledore (Gambon), who were superb, with Snape having the greatest villain voice ever to grace the cinema screen. Helena Bonham Carter deserves a mention too, because her Bellatrix manages to be - scary, funny and quite sexy all at the same time. Rupert Grint (Ron), however, out-shined every young actor in the film. I personally don't think Daniel Radcliffe is good enough an actor to play as big a character as Harry Potter, Emma Watson (Hermione) has improved so much, whereas Bonnie Wright (Ginny) was just annoying.
Another small gripe is the amount of stuff taken out of the book and added into or changed in the film. There were a number of scenes that I was confused at, and didn't see their relevance to the story as a whole, but also a number of scenes (one in particular - fire at the Burrow) that were added into the film. And that I was gutted there was no battle at Hogwarts at the end, but that could be down to the fact that there's going to be a huge battle in Deathly Hallows, so I can forgive that one. But on the whole, they kept all of the important scenes in, setting up for an absolute blockbuster of film A and B of Deathly Hallows. And I for one can't wait.
It wasn't perfect, but it was so very close. 8.1/10
And before you think, no, I didn't hate the film at all. It was absolutely brilliant. But I was very sad after the loss of a very beloved character, I'm sure all of you know who it was, but I won't say, just in case. The film actually managed to reduce me to tears. They weren't very big tears, but tears they were. I have never cried at a film or a book before. This film and the final Harry Potter book have made me do so. Good work, JKR.
Before I begin, I have to point out that Harry Potter brings people together. I know that's terribly cheesy, but that's what happened with me and my friends. And that's what happened in the cinema. I arrived early, so there were about 15 people in there. And we were all talking to eachother about Harry Potter, having a joke. I'd never met half of these people before. But that's what a good book series does. More of the same please.
The opening second got me all excited about the film. All it was, was dark clouds, and the Warner Bros. logo. But that was enough to get me hyper and realise "Harry Potter 6 is here!" and there was a shared emotion of the same context throughout the cinema. And that excitement continued throughout the whole 153 minutes of it. Something that hasn't kept me gripped so much since...well...anything. Transformers...well you know my opinion on that. The Dark Knight was incredibly long, and even though it's an amazing film, there was a time around 2/3 of the way through that I just wanted it to end. It seemed to drag on longer than it needed to. Lord of the Rings, I feel the exact same. But with Harry Potter I was completely absorbed. I knew exactly what was happening throughout the film as I read the book (again...) very recently, but I was still whispering "No, don't do it!" even though I knew they were going to do it.
The special effect sequences were just brilliant to watch, and whoever did them deserves huge credit for that. When Dumbledore made that incredible circle of fire around him and Harry in the cave, I was amazed.
The acting was good too, especially amongst Slughorn (Broadbent), Snape (Rickman) and Dumbledore (Gambon), who were superb, with Snape having the greatest villain voice ever to grace the cinema screen. Helena Bonham Carter deserves a mention too, because her Bellatrix manages to be - scary, funny and quite sexy all at the same time. Rupert Grint (Ron), however, out-shined every young actor in the film. I personally don't think Daniel Radcliffe is good enough an actor to play as big a character as Harry Potter, Emma Watson (Hermione) has improved so much, whereas Bonnie Wright (Ginny) was just annoying.
Another small gripe is the amount of stuff taken out of the book and added into or changed in the film. There were a number of scenes that I was confused at, and didn't see their relevance to the story as a whole, but also a number of scenes (one in particular - fire at the Burrow) that were added into the film. And that I was gutted there was no battle at Hogwarts at the end, but that could be down to the fact that there's going to be a huge battle in Deathly Hallows, so I can forgive that one. But on the whole, they kept all of the important scenes in, setting up for an absolute blockbuster of film A and B of Deathly Hallows. And I for one can't wait.
It wasn't perfect, but it was so very close. 8.1/10
Monday, 6 July 2009
Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen
Before I start, I'd just like to make the point that I'm a big fan of the Transformers in 2007 (and Megan Fox, but that's beside the point) so bias may be an issue in this review.
I originally didn't go into Transformers 2 with high hopes, after reading many a review saying pretty much the exact same thing: it's shit. But, on the contrary, a number of my doppelgangers had already seen the film and had told me it was "awesome", "class" and "sometimes hilarious". This only proves one thing about these people: they like loud noises. So on this basis, I ploughed on to the Odeon, Bridgend (which as it happens isn't as good a cinema as the Showcase Cinema, Nantgarw where I saw the other films I've reviewed so far, even though they have these "Premium Seats" which are exactly the same as the normal chairs, except they have a head rest) to witness the spectacle.
And, my first impressions of the film after I came out where these descriptions seemed true. But while actually looking back, there were a few, make that many, flaws.
The good stuff. The action scenes (which at a guess lasted 120 minutes of the 150 minutes the film lasted) were spectacularly loud with many an explosion and robot faces being ripped in two. That's about it.
The bad stuff. These noises are all very well, if there's a reason for them. Half of the sequences were pointless and didn't really have anything to do with the final story, with mini-skirmishes between anyone and everyone, it seemed purely for revenge of the fallen, surprisingly. And even though they were great to watch, I did get annoyed at the fact that it all seemed very similar to the first film. Optimus making a comeback to winning the battle versus Megatron/whatever the master Decepticon's name was, they never really said that. Or I just wasn't paying attention. And the ending was pretty much the spitting image of the first film. Shia LaBeouf and Optimus standing on the edge of something, with Optimus talking over it about how they won the war and they'll stay on earth. That pissed me off.
Shia LaBeouf did his best to rescue the film, with Megan Fox guaranteeing every male in the galaxy will watch the film one way or another, but sadly the film was poor on hindsight. I can understand why the audience gave it a good reception because it's what a summer film should be. Explosions, fighting and aliens. But, it has to be good at the same time. The humour I found rather stupid, clearly aimed at the younger audience, other than Skids, Mudflap, and the Decepticon that Fox took under her wing, were very funny indeed. But the soldiers in the film seemed very stupid and were just there because they had overly big arms.
So on that rather pissed off sounding review, Transformers 2 gets my worst review so far, if 3.9/10. Shame really. I'll watch the original to get my hopes up a bit more.
I originally didn't go into Transformers 2 with high hopes, after reading many a review saying pretty much the exact same thing: it's shit. But, on the contrary, a number of my doppelgangers had already seen the film and had told me it was "awesome", "class" and "sometimes hilarious". This only proves one thing about these people: they like loud noises. So on this basis, I ploughed on to the Odeon, Bridgend (which as it happens isn't as good a cinema as the Showcase Cinema, Nantgarw where I saw the other films I've reviewed so far, even though they have these "Premium Seats" which are exactly the same as the normal chairs, except they have a head rest) to witness the spectacle.
And, my first impressions of the film after I came out where these descriptions seemed true. But while actually looking back, there were a few, make that many, flaws.
The good stuff. The action scenes (which at a guess lasted 120 minutes of the 150 minutes the film lasted) were spectacularly loud with many an explosion and robot faces being ripped in two. That's about it.
The bad stuff. These noises are all very well, if there's a reason for them. Half of the sequences were pointless and didn't really have anything to do with the final story, with mini-skirmishes between anyone and everyone, it seemed purely for revenge of the fallen, surprisingly. And even though they were great to watch, I did get annoyed at the fact that it all seemed very similar to the first film. Optimus making a comeback to winning the battle versus Megatron/whatever the master Decepticon's name was, they never really said that. Or I just wasn't paying attention. And the ending was pretty much the spitting image of the first film. Shia LaBeouf and Optimus standing on the edge of something, with Optimus talking over it about how they won the war and they'll stay on earth. That pissed me off.
Shia LaBeouf did his best to rescue the film, with Megan Fox guaranteeing every male in the galaxy will watch the film one way or another, but sadly the film was poor on hindsight. I can understand why the audience gave it a good reception because it's what a summer film should be. Explosions, fighting and aliens. But, it has to be good at the same time. The humour I found rather stupid, clearly aimed at the younger audience, other than Skids, Mudflap, and the Decepticon that Fox took under her wing, were very funny indeed. But the soldiers in the film seemed very stupid and were just there because they had overly big arms.
So on that rather pissed off sounding review, Transformers 2 gets my worst review so far, if 3.9/10. Shame really. I'll watch the original to get my hopes up a bit more.
Friday, 19 June 2009
The Hangover
Wednesday night. Chris, Andrew, Tomos and Ieuan. Showcase Cinema. Perfect set up for a comedy. And, boy, what a comedy it was.
The plot of the film is not original. Bachelor party gone wild, suffering the consequences the next day, and in this case, trying to retrace their steps to find their missing friend, and Groom-to-be, Doug. Seems like a typical comedy, really. With a few laughs, but not that enjoyable. But this film can be summed up by one simple line: "I'm not leaving a baby in the hotel room, with a fucking tiger in the bathroom." That pretty much sums up this movie - totally unpredictably funny, with anything and everything included, causing an absolute abundance of laughs in the process.
The 3 main characters, Phil, Stu and Alan, cause absolute mayhem while trying to find Doug, discovering just what they got up to last night. The connection between the 3 is hilarious, with Alan claiming most, if not all, of the physical comedy in the film, Stu with the sarcasm and the "no hope card", and Phil with everything in between. But really what steals the show is the abundance of one liners (Come on handsome...not you fat Jesus!) from everyone in the film.
To sum up, I would personally call The Hangover one of, if not the, funniest films I've ever seen, and I don't think I've laughed that continuously in any film I've ever seen, with maybe only around a maximum of 3 minutes going past without me chuckling at something. Hell, sometimes, I even laughed, and was the only one laughing in the cinema. That's how funny I thought the film was.
Riddle Me That.
9.1/10 for The Hangover.
The plot of the film is not original. Bachelor party gone wild, suffering the consequences the next day, and in this case, trying to retrace their steps to find their missing friend, and Groom-to-be, Doug. Seems like a typical comedy, really. With a few laughs, but not that enjoyable. But this film can be summed up by one simple line: "I'm not leaving a baby in the hotel room, with a fucking tiger in the bathroom." That pretty much sums up this movie - totally unpredictably funny, with anything and everything included, causing an absolute abundance of laughs in the process.
The 3 main characters, Phil, Stu and Alan, cause absolute mayhem while trying to find Doug, discovering just what they got up to last night. The connection between the 3 is hilarious, with Alan claiming most, if not all, of the physical comedy in the film, Stu with the sarcasm and the "no hope card", and Phil with everything in between. But really what steals the show is the abundance of one liners (Come on handsome...not you fat Jesus!) from everyone in the film.
To sum up, I would personally call The Hangover one of, if not the, funniest films I've ever seen, and I don't think I've laughed that continuously in any film I've ever seen, with maybe only around a maximum of 3 minutes going past without me chuckling at something. Hell, sometimes, I even laughed, and was the only one laughing in the cinema. That's how funny I thought the film was.
Riddle Me That.
9.1/10 for The Hangover.
Saturday, 13 June 2009
Terminator Salvation
After the debacle of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator really needed a reboot to the franchise. And what a way to do it.
Salvation starts from halfway through the war between the Resistance and the Machines, as called in the film, set in 2018. Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the accidental leader of the Resistance, and there was some controversy with this appointment. In T3, John Connor is around 19 years old, and he looks nothing like Christian Bale. But they chose Christian Bale. That aside, he did play the role very well, besides his voice which was like The Dark Knight reincarnated. That growl that I personally found very annoying. But ho hum, he'll have to do.
The action epic that is Terminator certainly improved compared to T3 and The Terminator, but it seems unlikely that anything will match Judgement Day, but Salvation certainly has a good go at it. The action is brilliant, with all the fire, explosions and guns you could want in a film, and, fair play to the guy, Sam Worthington was brilliant in it. It was very clever by the Producers dodging the not-having-Arnie (even though he does turn up in the last half hour) barrier. It seems Terminator 5 will be the conclusion to the iconic series, and I'm most certainly sticking around to see it.
Terminator Salvation gets 7.1/10.
Next review: The Hangover.
Salvation starts from halfway through the war between the Resistance and the Machines, as called in the film, set in 2018. Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the accidental leader of the Resistance, and there was some controversy with this appointment. In T3, John Connor is around 19 years old, and he looks nothing like Christian Bale. But they chose Christian Bale. That aside, he did play the role very well, besides his voice which was like The Dark Knight reincarnated. That growl that I personally found very annoying. But ho hum, he'll have to do.
The action epic that is Terminator certainly improved compared to T3 and The Terminator, but it seems unlikely that anything will match Judgement Day, but Salvation certainly has a good go at it. The action is brilliant, with all the fire, explosions and guns you could want in a film, and, fair play to the guy, Sam Worthington was brilliant in it. It was very clever by the Producers dodging the not-having-Arnie (even though he does turn up in the last half hour) barrier. It seems Terminator 5 will be the conclusion to the iconic series, and I'm most certainly sticking around to see it.
Terminator Salvation gets 7.1/10.
Next review: The Hangover.
Drag Me To Hell
Quite simply, Drag Me To Hell is one of the best horrors I've ever seen, along with 30 Days of Night. 90% of the film is flawless. There are some bits that are rather pointless, like for instance, when we meet our main character Christine, played by the brilliant, and rather attractive, Alison Lohman, she is driving to work listening to an enunciation CD. It was utterly pointless in my book as it had nothing to do with the actual story. But other than that blip at the beginning, the rest of it was pure horrific genius. With some moments of comic genius thrown into the equation. There were moments where I actually yelped in my seat as Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) jumped out from behind the curtains in the shed scene. And when she was on the bed. And was curled up in a ball whenever she turned up in the film. Classic.
The film is directed by Sam Raimi, the man behind the Spiderman films, and this return to his roots (after his Evil Dead triolgy, which I have yet to watch) to old-school horror films. And it was an absolute blast. Hopefully, with Spiderman 4 in the process of filming, it should live up to the expectation, and match, or possibly better, the quality of Drag Me To Hell.
Drag Me To Hell gets 8.2/10.
The film is directed by Sam Raimi, the man behind the Spiderman films, and this return to his roots (after his Evil Dead triolgy, which I have yet to watch) to old-school horror films. And it was an absolute blast. Hopefully, with Spiderman 4 in the process of filming, it should live up to the expectation, and match, or possibly better, the quality of Drag Me To Hell.
Drag Me To Hell gets 8.2/10.
Welcome!!
I've decided to be a bit more inventive with my blogging, by blogging something that could be more interesting than my life. I've decided to review the latest films I see in the cinema. I have seen a fair number in the past few weeks, and will do some short reviews today for two of them - Terminator Salvation and Drag Me To Hell.
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
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