Time well spent

Splice (27/07/10)
I’ll admit it. I was curious about this movie. For that alone, I was slightly ashamed of myself! It looked like the kind of film I shouldn’t really go and see and tell people I had seen it. After seeing the film there are bits in it which were a little bit uncomfortable and just a bit… hmmm FREAKY, however I did like the film. It’ll be the best genetic altering film I’ll see this year! A bit creepy, a bit cute – there were more ‘aww’s’ coming from the audience I saw it with than I was expecting. I wouldn’t say there’s a twist ending, something I saw coming, but it still satisfied me.
Rating: 3/5

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Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (23/07/10)
I loved the first Ice Age movie. It looked lovely and the story brought tears to my eyes. But this one? Oh dear. I don’t understand why they keep giving Scrat more screen time. It’s just annoying and repetitive. I get it, he wants his nut! The underlying story of a mixed up family was done far better in Up. However the film did look great. BUT.. that’s not enough for me.
Rating: 1/5

Mars Attacks! (24/07/10)
I don’t know why I still hadn’t seen this film. CRAZY! At least the problem is rectified now. A very funny, satirical movie that’s just a lot of fun to watch. With a heck of a lot of famous people in it! Tom Jones made me laugh more than he should have. Loved the shoddy CG. A very fun film to watch.
Rating: 3/5

Inside Man (25/07/10)
I thought this was your typical bank heist movie. I was ready to settle into the usual routine of hostages, negotiator and usual action. I was a little bit wrong and very grateful for that. I spent a good part of the film trying to figure out what the hell was actually going on. I like films that tax my brain a little. But by the end make sense. Though I remained confused as to the choice of opening and closing song for the film – a very popular Hindi song. I didn’t understand and still don’t!
Rating: 4/5

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[REC] (09/07/10)
I had no expectations of this film other than I could potentially have a jump and it was in another language so I would be reading some subtitles. I sat and watched and got sucked in. Very good horror movie which actually did make me jump a couple of times. For me that’s rare. I liked the fact there they didn’t feel a need to explain things. Things happened and you just get caught up in the events and go along with it like the characters in the film did. Quite like to see the sequel now.
Rating: 4/5

Inception (17/07/10)
Chris Nolan is awesome. He picks the best cast, creates the best films and makes my mind explode and implode. I loved Inception. My brain did hurt a little while watching and after watching. I’m not going to say too much so as not to give too much away but it was awesome. JGL needs to be in more films. Please. And have guns. Also Tom Hardy was a nice surprise, he was very good! And the score was brilliant. LOVED!
Rating: 5/5

Moon (18/07/10)
This was also nothing like i was expecting, though I had very few expectations. Just that I was meant to love this. And I did. Sam Rockwell was brilliant. He carried the film amazingly well.
Rating: 5/5

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It’s been a long time since this blog has been updated let alone anymore movies being added. Never mind, playing catch up now!

Underdog May
Just a poor kids movie that I got suckered into watching due to boredom, a heat wave and a cute pup.
Rating: 1/5

Dan in Real Life May
I’m not a fan of Steve Carell. I appreciate that the majority of people find him hilarious, but not me. It’s probably why this film’s been sitting on my Sky box for so long. It’s not Steve Carell as I know him, and for that I was grateful. Very sweet film with some funny moments.
Rating: 3/5

In the Loop May
I wish I could swear like one of the characters out of this film. I didn’t know what was going on for most of the first half of the film, but the swearing was fantastic. I got into it towards the end, and it got a few laughs out of me.
Rating: 3/5

State of Play 19/06/10
Brilliant thriller. Never saw the original BBC drama this was based on but eh. Doesn’t really matter. The film was awesome.
Rating: 4/5

Pride and Glory 19/06/10
This is the kind of film where I think everyone in it is really good but the plot just didn’t grab me. Typical dirty cops kind of film.
Rating: 2/5

The Losers 20/06/10
Fun film to watch on a Sunday afternoon. Very little brain activity needed. Brilliant bits of action – don’t need anything more!
Rating: 3/5

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I really do love the summer blockbuster season. Every single week there’s a new film out that I want to see. I haven’t been this often to the cinema in ages!

Robin Hood (15/05/10)
Reuniting Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe for a good olde historical epic film. It’s not going to be a horrendously bad idea, considering their last historical outing together – Gladiator was damn good and pretty much set the bar for movies of its kind.

Robin Hood doesn’t disappoint. I won’t give away too many plot points, but as most non-spoilery reviewers have said, it’s not the typical Robin Hood story. More of an origin story of a sort. Which is good, as you get to see the film in its own light, rather than comparing to previous Robin Hood stories.

The battle scenes are epic and brilliantly done. There’s a nice bit of humour in the film as well. Here and there, and not overly done. Accents however are a bit patchy, mostly Russell Crowe! I honestly don’t quite know what he accent was meant to be, but I’m guessing Yorkshire. Kevin Durand’s Scottish was pretty good and Scott Grimes’ Welsh wasn’t bad, though I honestly thought he was meant to be Scottish at a few points!

It’s no Gladiator, but a damn good film in my eyes. The beginning is strong, loses it towards the middle, but picks up towards the end of the film. Worth watching for a bit of history. Can’t guarantee many truths in the history.
Rating: 4/5

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I’ve got some movies that have been sitting on my shelf just waiting to get watched. The Orphanage was one of those and I’m now wondering why I left it on my shelf for so long!

El Orfanto aka The Orphanage (08/05/10)
Described as an old fashioned ghost story, The Orphanage mostly lives up to that claim. I say mostly, because my interpretation of the movie takes the ghost out of the film. Not that that’s a bad thing – quite the opposite! It did have all the necessities for an original ghost story – cute but slightly scary children, a very strange looking old woman and a big empty building. I liked the use of minor gore really sparingly in the film. I can count the moments that there was a horrifying image on one hand, which is a good thing. So many horror movies these days rely on the use of gore for the scares. To me this film was less about the scares/ghost story aspect and more about the loss of a child and how a mother copes with that. Very touching.
Rating: 4/5

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (09/05/10)
I have loved the Prince of Persia games since way back when it was a 2D simple platform game. Then when the new games came out on PC I was intrigued. I missed out on The Sands of Time and went into the new game franchise with Warrior Within and have played all the games since. LOVE THEM. So when the announcement was made that there was going to be a movie version of my favourite ever game I was scared. Yes I like the Tomb Raider movies, but even I know they’re not amazing. They’re my guilty pleasure movies. However I wanted Prince of Persia to be different, mostly because the plots of the game are just as enthralling as the game play.

Casting Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan gave me a bit of a fright – I know he can act but I didn’t think he looked the part! Having seen the film now I am totally onboard with him as the Prince and seeing more of this franchise in movie format. The basic story was taken from the Sands of Time game and built on for the purposes of the movie, adding more characters. As summer blockbuster type movies go, this one ticked all the boxes. Lots of action with nicely put together action sequences. There was some effort put in to make it look like the games, however not too much as to make it cheesy. You’ve got some nice, typical, PoP game moves as well. Which was nice to see!

I had a few mixed feelings about Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina. I had an irrational hate of her, which Clash of the Titans and Sands of Time have more or less washed away. Ben Kingsley was just phoning it on, as he’s done on all of his recent films that I’ve seen. Alfred Molina was a good bit of comedy and Jake was just awesome. I might be slightly swayed by how he looked in the film, but eh, I’m only human!

There was one thing which did bug me about the film. The use of the Papyrus font for the onscreen location descriptions! Papyrus is not a good font for any kind of subtitles on movies and should not be used! Just don’t do it. Other than that, a good movie with plenty to build on if they decide to do more movies from the franchise of games.
Rating: 4/5

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