February 2010 - UK Cinema Releases

Woah, busy month. If I see any I'll post a mini review

5th February

Astro Boy

Invictus

Tony

Youth In Revolt

12th February

Food, Inc

Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief

Ponyo

Pretty Woman

A Single Man

Valentine's Day

The Wolfman

19th February

Crazy Heart

The Last Station

The Lovely Bones

Soloman Kane

26th February

Capitalism: A Love Story

The Crazies

Extraordinary Measures

From Paris With Love

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Micmacs

Sundance

Films to look out for from the Sundance Film Festival

Sundance

Films to look out for from the Sundance Film Festival

Stardust (2007)

"A philosopher once asked, "Are we human because we gaze at the stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?" Pointless, really... ”Do the stars gaze back?" Now *that's* a question. "

Neil Gaiman's novel brought to life.

A great story and a very funny film directed by Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, the forthcoming Kick-Ass) that brings to mind The Princess Bride. That is not a bad thing. The film looks wonderful and the characters are brought to life well by all concerned.

Narrated by Ian McKellen, this fairy tale starts in the village of Wall in England. There is a wall in the village that, through a constantly guarded gap, leads to the magical land of Stormhold where the story begins when a dying king sets his remaining sons a task to see which one of them will rule once he has passed. This leads to a star being knocked from the sky and a boy named Tristan who promises to fetch the star to impress a girl.

Of course, the star lands in Stormhold and once on the ground takes the shape of a girl (Clare Danes). From there we have witches, magic, fying ships, daring rescues and a little romance. It's a film to fall in love with just as I did with The Princess Bride.

Watch it, enjoy and smile.

9 out of 10.

The Book of Eli (2010)

"Put that hand on me again, you won't get it back"

Doesn't make sense but it sure is fun.

Denzel Washington plays a man named Eli in post-apocalyptic America, on a 'Mission from God' as the Blues Brothers would say. He's on a journey of faith to deliver a book where it would be of most use, and nothing will get in his way. Because, although he used to work at Wal-Mart, in the past 30 winters since the world as we know it ended, he has become a master swordsman, kung fu expert and tracker.

The film looks great. Photographed using the Red One and bleached to within an inch of its life, it really sells a world after the bomb. It starts well with Denzel wandering on his own, takes a detour for him to charge his beloved ipod! and then has an ending that makes you question everything that has come before it.

But the action is well directed with Denzel doing all his own fighting and the camera staying wide to show him off. Gary Oldman is back as a bad guy for the first time since Lost in Space, but, as a well read and intelligent character, it's a shame that he resorts to mindless violence in order to get a hold of the book Washington is carrying.

The only misstep is the casting of Mila Kunis, who is just too perfect for a time with no shampoo and where water is the most expensive commodity. It would have been interesting to see what Kristen Steward would have done with the role if she didn't have to do that shitty Twilight film instead.

A fun film for the beginning of the year and one that'll leave you thinking at the end of it.

8 out of 10

Daybreakers (2010)

"Living in a world where vampires are the dominant species is about as safe as bare backing a 5 dollar whore. "

Bloody Vampire Fun.

Set in a world where vampires outnumber humans to the extent that humans are an endangered species, this movie asks what happens when vampires lose their food supply. That's quite a clever concept and not one I'd thought of before. It's a slight shame that vampires appear to be rather dull though, a fact expounded upon by casting Ethan Hawke, an actor who always looks like he'd rather be doing something else, in the lead role as a scientist looking for a blood substitute.

Sam Neill plays his boss and Hawke's eventual antagonist and looks like he's enjoying himself as a rather slimy corporate bigwig, reminiscent of his role in Omen 3. The film is owned by Willem Dafoe, who plays a character called Elvis who gets all the best lines.

The story's been told many times but the gruesome fun the Spierig brothers have killing vampires makes the film a forgettable blast. Just turn your brain off and have fun.

7 out of 10

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

"You know somethin', Utivich? I think this might just be my masterpiece. "

The best of 2009?

Gonna do this one a little differently and split this review into five chapters and go a little in-depth. Needless to say, I think it's brilliant and deserves the discussion. To be continued . . .

10 out of 10

From the creators of The Wire . . .

. . . what more needs to be said!

For more information check out Collider

New HBO show by the writer of The Sopranos with a pilot directed by Martin Scorsese!

Wow - Must see!

For more information see the Playlist

The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

"Now more than ever, we need the Jedi."

Quirky comedy with George Clooney and Ewan McGregor

A movie where the most outlandish scenes are probably true. You really couldn't make this shit up! Based on the non-fiction novel by Jon Ronson and thus rather uneven as a film, it still makes for good entertainment.

George Clooney, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges are having the time of their lives with this picture, sending themselves, and previous roles, up in the process. Ewan McGregor plays a reporter who seeks out America's secret psychic army represented by former member George Clooney. The story is told mainly as flashback as Clooney relays the history of the unit from its seeds in Vietnam and continues the story in modern day Iraq, where Clooney is on a mission.

The film relishes the moments where Clooney tells McGregor that he is a Jedi Warrior and can sense some psychic ability with him, so he could become a Jedi too. Of course every time the film mentions the word Jedi, it takes you out of the story somewhat as you chuckle with the irony.

The film is worth a watch but catch it as a rental.

7 out of 10

Teen Wolf (1985)

'These waves are mine. '

1985 - Michael J Fox's year?

The number one show on US TV, the number one movie at the box office. Fox owned the summer of '85 so when he ended that summer with Teen Wolf, it was gonna make money. Nostalgia was high on this film, Marty McFly as a wolf at college, it was fun when I saw it years ago. Time has not been kind though but if you remember it from childhood it will always have a place.

The urban surfing is still memorable, the basketball coach is hilarious and Michael is as easy to like as ever but the story is too simple and, unfortunately, doesn't hold up.

One interesting bit of trivia to note:

Scott Howard's (Michael J. Fox) house was located on the same block as 1955 George McFly's and 1955 Lorraine Baines's houses from Back to the Future (1985). The Howard house in Teen Wolf is the same house as Marty's mother's house (the Baines house) in 1955 BttF.

Did not know that!

5 out of 10

Avatar (2009)

"Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world, and in here is the dream."

My third trip to Pandora - Does it still hold up?

A film fourteen years in the making and definitely worth the wait. I read the scriptment to this when it turned up online in the late 90s' and couldn't wait for Cameron to get started, but it was shelved as the technology was not up to scratch. Although bummed at the time, Cameron knew what he was doing.

Cut to 2005 and Cameron had yet to follow up Titanic with a feature film, what was he playing at? He'd been developing cameras and perfecting 3D technology is what with the IMAX documentary films Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep. Having witnessed Weta Digital's ground breaking motion capture work on Gollum and Kong he thought the time was ready for Avatar.

Cameron systematically deleted all copies of the scriptment from the interwebs and announced he was gearing up for post-production on two films, Battle Angel Alita (based on a Japanese Manga and with a, Cameron trademark, strong female lead) and the mysterious Project 880, which because of the scriptment deletion was widely thought to be Avatar. And so it was.

Filming started in 2007 using a ground breaking process that will inevitably change film making going forward. The following is from an article on popularmechanics.com's website that explains this technique:

By Anne Thompson

Stage render by Axel De Roy; Diagrams by Locografix

1: The Volume

Most of James Cameron’s space epic, Avatar, was shot on a performance-capture stage, known as the volume, in Playa Vista, Calif. The volume was rimmed by 120 stationary video cameras, which could record the movements of all actors at once in 3D, with submillimeter precision. Data from the cameras was streamed into Autodesk software, which translates actors’ movements into digital characters in real time within a low-resolution computer-generated environment. So riding a fake banshee mockup onstage instantly translated to CG footage. Multiple cameramen were used on set for reference video, but because the volume essentially captures performances from every angle at once, Cameron could digitally render whatever angles and shots he wanted after the performance, adjusting the camera movements while viewing playback.

2: Digital Closeup

Like many actors in Avatar, Zoë Saldana plays a fully computer-generated character, Na’vi princess Neytiri. To map her movements to her digital doppelgänger, Saldana wore a motion-capture bodysuit with reference markers and stripes. She also wore a head rig designed by Cameron that aimed a smallvideo camera at her face. That camera tracked green ink dots, painted on Saldana’s face, throughout the scene, giving Cameron closeup-level detail of changes in expression to map to Neytiri’s CG face.

3: On-Set Playback

To shoot a scene within a totally CG world, Cameron had virtual production supervisor Glenn Derry rig up augmented-reality cameras. Cameron could watch from the sidelines as his actors’ performances were instantly mapped to their CG characters and displayed via an on-set screen. Or he could use a portable, motion-tracking virtual camera to walk through the volume and view the CG environment of the movie on its LCD screen.

4: Final Render

To transition from the CG produced on set to the photorealistic world of the finished movie, Cameron sent his rough footage to Weta Digital in New Zealand. There, special-effects programmers used a facial solve program and facial action coding to translate the actors’ every minute muscle movement—blinks, twitches, frowns—to believable expressions on the faces of Pandora’s aliens.

Two years later and the film was ready to be unveiled across the world, but not in the usual way.

August 19th 2009 - Four months until release and except for a showing at Comic-Con the previous month the world had yet to see a picture, let alone a trailer for 'the biggest film of the year.' Yet Cameron and 20th Century Fox had something big planned. In two days the would take over IMAX cinemas and additional 3D screens around the world to unveil 16 minutes of the film as an extended trailer. I traveled down to London and watched the trailer twice, once in a regular cinema using RealD tech, and for the second time at the BFI IMAX. I was blown away. The images on screen were mind blowing - December 18th couldn't come soon enough.

I've seen the film three times now, twice in IMAX and once in 3D at a regular theatre and the film holds up. The story maybe simple and predictable but nobody sets up pay-off's better than Cameron which is why his films do so well. The film is perfectly structured, the acting from the humans to the Na'vi is spot on for the roles they are playing and the visuals have never been seen before. Weta have outdone themselves with motion capture and have mastered dead eyes which have been issues with previous motion capture films. I saw Christmas Carol over Christmas and the motion capture there doesn't quite convince. ILM, who also worked on Avatar due to the immense workload, asked Weta to give them the code they'd work out to get convincing eyes and Weta said 'no.' You gotta keep the holy grail close to your chest I guess!

There is only one thing I miss from the scriptment. A creature called a Slinger, whose head can detach from its body to capture prey, just seemed way too outlandish but is based a a sea creature Cameron documented in his Aliens of the Deep documentary. I got the The Field Guide to Pandora the other day and was pleased to see the Slinger included in the book so he was designed for the movie and will hopefully appear in the sequel or in the deleted scenes on the Blu-ray.

10 out of 10

The Dark Knight (2008)

" I don't want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No, no, NO! No. You... you... complete me."

Chris Nolan's masterpiece revisited on Blu-ray

This is a densely plotted summer movie. We complain year in, year out that our holiday movies are dumbing down and its all about the bang on screen and to hell with the story (hello Transformers 2), where here, we're made to think, but our socks still fly off!

The way to see this at home is on Blu-ray. The transfer is superb. Not only that, but the scenes filmed specifically for IMAX (for the first time in a major motion picture) fill the frame with all the detail IMAX can give.

As you can the see, the image is a heck of a lot bigger and the detail just jumps right out. There are six scenes, and all aerial shots, filmed this way, seamlessly slotted into the film, and although it proved a bitch to film, it was worth all the trouble.

The film, from its Heat inspired opening to the closing shots of the Batman riding off on his Batpod, is a joy to watch unfold. A lot has been said of Heath Ledger as the Joker. All the praise is earned, and then some. From his self applied make-up, to the decision to lick his wounds with a flick of his tongue, this is Ledger at his finest. We can't forget Christian Bale, whose Bruce Wayne and Batman are more fleshed out in this instalment. Michael Caine plays Alfred just right, again building on the previous film.

Nolan's decision to film most of the film during daylight, and let the Batman out of Gotham, also expand the visuals of the story and build the world in ways no other Batman film has. The script, while there are holes on closer inspection, is impeccable from a story standpoint and while being Nolan's most linear film is also his most complicated.

I can't wait to find out who was behind the Joker in the third film, which really can't come soon enough, but in the mean time I'm gonna be enjoy this a lot on my PS3.

10 out of 10

Up in the Air (2009)

"The stars will wheel forth from their daytime hiding places; and one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over."

The third film by Jason Reitman.

I love this movie.

That could be the end of the review. Jason Reitman has made a perfect film with the perfect leading man. George Clooney is a bona fide movie star and his confidence and swagger exude all over this film. The first half of the picture he is just cool. He plays Ryan Bingham who floats through life on his smarts with the tenacity to go into company's to fire people on their behalf, live his life on the road and give motivational speeches to explain his world view - the Back-pack theory.

Then he meets Vega Farmiga's Alex Goran who, as she puts it, is Ryan "with a vagina." They have an anal obsession with loyalty cards and hit it off immediately. Ryan, so used to an empty life out a suitcase, has found his co-pilot.

When his company threaten to ground him and start firing people over a computer network Ryan has to train young Natalie, new to the company and inventor of the video conferencing downsizing method, while trying to get the 10 million frequent flyer miles that he is so close to.

The film is perfectly judged and worked for me in every way. It's about life, the friends you meet, the relationships you have and, all-important, family. Clooney and Farmiga have excellent chemistry, the cameos are subtle and well judged and seeing Sam Elliot with that moustache and wonderful voice brings back memories of 'The Big Lebowski,' which is always good in my book.

10 out of 10

The Lovely Bones (2009)

"My name is Salmon, like the fish. First name, Susie. I was fourteen years old when I was murdered on December 6th, 1973"

Peter Jackson's latest

Based on Alice Sebold's best-selling novel of the same name, this is an adaptation

that just wasn't ambitious enough.Susie Salmon is raped and murdered at the age

of fourteen, but that is not the end of her story as she enters the 'in-between' and is

able to watch her family and murderer as time passes. The film is very uneven and I

know it's an adapation and can't possibly be the same as the book, but it changes

and leaves out some important parts of the source material.

For instance, no mention is made of Susie's rape, it's not shown and just barely

implied. Alice Sebold was raped as a freshman at university, and the book caputures

Susie's harrowing ordeal and suffering at the time of the rape and as the years past

by while she tries to work out why this happened to her.

Also, the film is squashed into a shorter period of time so the story doesn't develop

as well as it should. One of the things I took away from the book was the

heart-breaking love story between Susie and her first love Ray. The film messes up

the first kiss (It doesn't happen!), so the ending doesn't work and just seems, well,

weird.

I dunno, maybe there's a great movie on the cutting-room floor, but as it is, it's just

merely good, if a little confusing.This is something I experienced with 'The Lord of

the Rings : The Return of the King,' where watching the film in the cinema, and

having experienced the extended editions of the previous two films in the trilogy, I

couldn't help think Jackson was holding out and just getting the film under three

hours. I was let down then and feel this story has been let down for the same reason.

I am looking forward to watching this on Blu-ray, there are some wonderful images

on display here, as Stanley Tucci has done an amazing job as Mr. Harvey,

unrecognisable under great make-up and acting skill. Saoirse Ronan is also

wonderful as Susie, but, again, I feel there's more to her performance. Rachael

Weisz is also good but underused and Susan Sarandon is having fun as the

grandmother. The only let-down is Mark Wahlberg who just doesn't convince as the

father and has to carry too much of the story.

6 out of 10