Saturday, October 19, 2013

The Awful Truth - 1937 ****


Notably Cary Grant's first 'screwball' film, it's certainly a funny one and is now in the annuals of the top hundred comedies. Grant and Dunne play a soon to be divorced couple. Despite not wanting to stay together, they each go out their way to sabotage the other's new relationships leading to some hilarious moments that only Leo McCarey could envisage. Ralph Bellamy is rather good as Dunne's new love interest, but it is Grant who fills the screen with wit and charm, the only way he knows how.

(HORROR) Child's Play - 1988 ****


'Child's Play' is a scary film. Especially scary to me because I have a bit of a hysterical nature regarding dolls becoming real. The 'Good Guy' doll itself, even when it's just a doll, has a menacing look about it, but when it starts walking and talking, my god!
A doll being possessed by the soul of a psychotic murderer named Charles 'Chucky' is quite a good idea for a horror film. It's certainly unique, and it's got enough material to spawn a number of sequels. Definitely a must see for horror fans.

Friday, October 18, 2013

(HORROR) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 - 1986 *


I'm not against sequels, in fact occasionally you can find one that is very good and sometimes (*shudder*) even better than the original. This is not better than the original, and in fact I'm deciding whether this might be one of the worst films I have seen this year. The acting is horrendous, almost funny in fact, the plot is as holey as a fishing net, and the characters are ghastly. Not really scary (as in the first film) but just really stupid. The main character, a girl called Stretch (for God's sake don't ask why!) runs around screaming and shrieking with a simplistic look on her face but doesn't seem to appreciate the basic fundamental do's and don'ts of running away from maniacs. She likes hovering around, shouting out 'who's there?' every thirty seconds, tripping herself up on virtually anything and generally making as much noise as possible so that she will be caught. (Do you ever notice in horror films how loudly the characters breathe when they are hiding from their captors? Well she sounds like a warthog with a cold).

The Internship - 2013 ***


'The Internship' has a fair few laughs, and does come across as an original film, but my god you couldn't possibly take something like this seriously.
Vaughn and Wilson play two friends in dire need or fun and worthwhile jobs. By lying on their CV's, they manage to wrangle their way into becoming interns at Google. However, various challenges that they have to face, tasks that they have to complete, and horrible people that they have to have daily contact with, serve to push their self esteem and faith in themselves to the limit.
On the plus side, working at Google looks AMAZING, (although going to strip clubs with your colleagues seems a little far-fetched...)
Worth a watch, but not to buy.

I, Anna - 2012 ***


Quite a decent thriller, and I suppose it does have 'film noir' qualities about it, but parts of the film lagged, and I was a tad disappointed with Charlotte Rampling's performance (especially as she is usually brilliant). Gabriel Byrne plays a troubled DI who is covering the case of a man murdered in his flat. By chance, he becomes enthralled by Anna, a mysterious and lonely woman who seems to know more about the murder than she lets on. Is she involved?
Quite a good experience, but certain things just didn't hold my interest.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Red Lights - 2012 **

 
Erm no, this is nothing like 'The Sixth Sense'. That was good and genuinely haunting and scary. This is not. Robert De Niro plays a 'real psychic' who Weaver and Murphy are desperate to uncover as a fraud. They just don't seem to be able to find any hoax material on him. Slow, badly paced and the acting was unforgettable. Pointless.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

(HORROR) The Conjuring - 2013 ***


Scary but not original (are any new horror films original anymore?). A family move into a cursed house with a cursed doll and strange occurrences begin to happen. All related to being cursed of course  They call upon a renowned psychic and his wife to cleanse the house .
Nothing new here, although a few jumps and especially bad if you have problems with dolls.

Passion - 2012 **


Am embarrassed that this is Brian De Palma. He's usually superb. This was a very poor remake of the French thriller 'Love Crime' with the superb Ludivine Sagnier about cruelness and backstabbing in the workplace, and the repercussions. Unlike that one, the acting is wooden (from both McAdams and Rapace) and the story is very disjointed. I didn't think much of this really. If you want to see a good story with good acting it's best to stick to the original.

The Hangover III - 2013 **


It's just as well this was the last film of these comedies because I know I wouldn't of watched the next one. Same sort of routine, although really doesn't have anything to do with the last two movies. The funniest character was Chinese - says it all really. I just feel that these films were never particularly good, they just arrived on the scene at a time when America was only shelling out awful comedies, and I suppose they were a bit unique. Or rather, the first one was. The second one wasn't so much, and this one had no clue what it was doing (neither did the formless, idiotic characters). This time the group are in Las Vegas. Oh joy.

(HORROR) Taste the Fear - 1961 ****


Ironic really, that a 60s hammer horror would be scarier than something churned out in the last few years pertaining to be a horror film. A woman goes to stay at her father's house which her stepmother appears to be running with routine precision. Every time she asks about her father however, she is told that he is away on business. Which is strange really, because she could swear that she saw him in the summer house, and in his wheelchair by the pool at night. Haunting and scary. Worth a watch.

Just Go With It - 2011 ***


Moderately funny, but nothing to get too worked up about, this movie features Adam Sandler in the role he loves best, that of a quirky, not very funny, hard done-by bloke. After a misunderstanding, Sandler meets a woman he believes is meant for him. The thing is, he has always worn his wedding ring (despite the marriage ending when he was a teen) so that women will not want commitment from him. He therefore has to convince his new girlfriend that he is getting divorced from his wife and she believes him. This is so that she doesn't  The only thing is that he doesn't have a wife, only a good friend (Aniston). After a lot of begging, he persuades her to play along as his soon-to-be-divorced spouse, as well as her two children.
Of course there are some funny moments, but the standout performances have to be from Aniston's two children, one of whom spends the whole movie speaking in an awful cockney accent in preparation for going to drama school. Sandler gets annoying after a while.

Monday, October 14, 2013

(HORROR) Friday the 13th - 1980 ** 1/2


Having never watched any of this franchise it was rather exciting for me to get to see the first in the series the other day.
However, my excitement disappeared rapidly when I realised how awfully dated and cheesy the whole thing was. I can't actually see what all the fuss is about. Rather like 'Sleepaway Camp' (which spawned plenty of sequels but was utterly stupid to watch) this was a typical slasher from the 1980s, although it really can't compare to anything like Halloween or Texas Chainsaw.
Jason, the main 'star' of these films, is only viewed for about 3 seconds near the end of the film, so I would imagine that I will end up seeing the next one just to see if he makes a more lengthy appearance (a rather clever marketing ploy I think).

The Tall Man - 2012 **

Awful, messy film, with a ridiculous performance by Jessica Biel who appears to have undergone a 'no wash' policy for the entire period of filming.
Children are disappearing at an alarming rate from the mining town of Cold Rock. After Biel's child is taken, she sets out to discover the truth about who or what is taking the children, and how come the townsfolk seem to know so much more than they are letting on.
The story starts off in a reasonable way, but the end is actually a joke.

L'Atalante - 1934 ****


L'Atalante is a beautiful film, both in action and in photography. It has this weird, slightly surreal feel to it that I have only ever experienced in another masterpiece of it's time 'The Night of the Hunter'.
Jean Vigo only made a small number of films in his short life, and this is the one that defies time and stereotype. It's hard to explain how you feel after watching, but it's somewhere between deep exultation and heartbreak. It probably is a fair comment to make that it's one of the greatest films ever made.

Thursday, October 03, 2013

Love Crime - 2010 ****

One of the better films I have seen this month. 'Love Crime' is richly constructed, brilliantly acted by both Scott Thomas and Sagnier, and (as stated on the poster) really does convey a film noir quality to it.
Christine is ruthless and calculating as the executive boss who enjoys tormenting and manipulating her young and talented assistant Isabelle. Isabelle quietly and calmly plots the only thing that means she can be freed from the harassment that she can think of. Murder. But there comes a twist. Not only does she leave clues at the crime scene, but she implicates herself. Mental Breakdown? Or something more sinister?
Very gripping and beautifully directed by the late Alain Corneau, this is one to watch.
An added bonus is to try and catch 'Swimming Pool' (which stars the two same actresses and is equally as bizarre).

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

(HORROR) V/H/S 2 - 2013 *


The entire first film was a bit of a mistake. I sort of wished that I hadn't wasted my time. The second one sounded like it might have improved a bit so I 'jumped off the deep end' so to speak.
The first is broken up into various segments, and some are quite good. The others are really bad though, and it just made the film a big confusing mess. It gave me the same feeling that I had when I watched 'The Bay', that of feeling so confused and dumbfounded that a horror movie could make me feel that way. I would avoid this, and if it's not too late, avoid the first film too.

(HORROR) Dead Souls - 2012 **



'Dead Souls' is particularly gruesome, but also ridiculous in every possible way. It starts off with a flashback that I can only describe as disgusting, and then flips backwards and forwards for the rest of the film which leaves the audience rather confused. The main character is a rather wimpish year old who discovers on his birthday that not only was he adopted, but that he has been left a house. And a terrifying, evil house at that. Once he arrives he finds a strange girl has been living in the house (a bit squat-like if you ask me) and they find themselves mixed up in the horrific stories of the house.
It's certainly atmospheric but I cannot possibly say that I enjoyed it.

Last Passenger - 2013 ***


One of my pet peeves with films is having a good storyline that comes to the end with no resolution whatsoever. This is sort of what happened here. I'm not sure if the film was loosely based upon the awful accident at Moorgate Tube Station over 30 years ago but it certainly leans in that direction. Dougray Scott and his young son board the train for home late at night and are joined by various other 'normal' characters. Kara Tointon in particular appears and begins flirting with him in rather a desperate manner but that just seems to be her personality. She also takes a shine to his son.
They fall asleep and when they next wake, they find that there are only a small handful of people left on the train. After unsuccessfully trying to speak to the driver Scott realises something is very wrong when the train speeds by each of their stations without stopping and appears to be picking up speed.
It's a taut movie, and does have plenty of jumps and thrills, but I was SO disappointed by the ending that it's brought my rating right down.

(HORROR) Bloody Homecoming - 2012 *


Well the first part of the title says it all. It is bloody. Bloody awful.
With the worst actors in the world, an almost transparent plotline and effects that would be better seen in an amateur play, this was a helping of 'gory horror' at it's lowest form. This sort of film involving students going to a prom has been done many times before, and only a handful of times has it been able to sustain something actually worthwhile.
I cannot recommend this film unless you are wanting a way to put yourself to sleep VERY quickly without the help of a strong sedative.

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

(HORROR) Static - 2012 ***


'Static' is quite a strange film. It's odd really how one minute you can feel a certain way about the characters and then in a blink of an eye that opinion has completely changed and you are siding with the bad side. The tagline on the poster says it all really. I hadn't noticed this before I watched it and so was a bit behind. It doesn't really become clear what is happening until the end, but when it does it's very confusing.

(HORROR) Sick Boy - 2012 ***


If it wasn't for the shockingly bad ending, and the irritating lead female character, this would actually have got away with being an original and scary horror.
After accepting a babysitting job for a woman who pays $400 per evening, Lucy does the one thing she is asked not to do. And that is go downstairs to the basement area where the woman's son lives. What she finds is really quite horrific.
Worth a watch. But gets a bit silly towards the end.

(HORROR) The Messengers 2: The Scarecrow 2009 *

 
 
I was genuinely loved the first film. It was SCARY. It had a good plot, and made me not want to go to sleep with the lights off. This sequel (disturbingly having gone 'straight to video') was diabolical. It's one of those films you will confuse with another manic scarecrow-ish monster in a similar film (Jeepers Creepers 2) and still find it awful.
There is no story, except that the main character is in danger of losing his home which conveniently happens to back onto a massive crop field. It then transpires somehow, that there is a hideous scarecrow intent on evil deeds who wants to kill him and his wife and children.
That appears to be most of the story.

(HORROR) The Bay - 2012 **


First off, there is nothing talented or radical about a film with a wonky camera being jerked up and down for over an hour. The story is hilarious. Deadly bugs get into the cuts and scrapes of people when they are swimming in the local pool and soon the whole town is being eaten from the inside, tongue first.
Just ridiculous. And the whole film is narrated by the world's most AGGRAVATING woman whatsoever who talks in a boring, monotone voice nonstop after having found various footage online of the infection. Just a complete waste of time.

Last Chance Harvey - 2008 ****


I was surprised by this movie. Warm and easy going, it was just the sort of thing you want to watch on a cold and cosy evening. Dustin Hoffman plays a wannabe jazz musician named Harvey and a bit of a useless father, to the extent that his daughter (who is about to get married) makes sure he stays at a separate hotel to all the other gusts and is put on the end of the dinner table. The icing on the cake however, is when she chooses her stepfather over him to give her away at the wedding.
Whilst in London for the celebrations, Harvey meets gentle and good-natured Kate, who refuses to find love, and spends her life on the phone to her neurotic mother who is convinced her Polish neighbour is going to murder her.
The pair, somewhat stubbornly, hit it off, and begin to spend a lot of time together despite their obvious differences.
Emma Thompson is wonderful as always and Dustin Hoffman is not bad at all.