Film Reviews
2009
The Saxon Film Score Explained
How I score movies
Film Reviews
|
The Saxon Film Score Explained How I score movies |
|
|
Film |
Review |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lesbian Vampire Killers | Monsters vs Aliens | Bolt (3D) | Frost / Nixon | Defiance | Seven Pounds | Valkyrie | The Wrestler | The Spirit |
Lesbian Vampire KillersApr 1 Probably should have read the IMDB entry for this before I went to see it. The entry reads as: a director who's hardly done anything before in film* directs a bunch of never-heard-of-them-before actors in a film written by people more used to writing sketches for TV, with a couple of up and coming comedy stars thrown in to commercialise it. And Paul McGann. From IMDB:
I don't know what I was expecting going in to see this, but I think I can safely say I was expecting something better. Horne and Corden are basically playing their respective characters from Gavin and Stacy, and given their comic abilities, I was expecting more laughs. Paul McGann is entertaining as the vampire obsessed vicar but the rest of the cast are largely forgettable. The plot is, well let's face it; fairly unimportant. The acting is pretty dire and to steal a phrase; the special effects aren't. A couple of decent effects, and for the most part the rest is white gunge being thrown about, largely at James Corden**. Blokes all know why they go to see a vampire film. There's certain things they want to see;
Lesbian Vampire Killers is very light on all of these key measures. There's precious few vampire deaths, and even then they all die like the wicked witch from Oz; dissolving into pools of goo. Almost no-one is ever seen being bitten and the only nudity on show is in the opening few minutes of the info-dump narration, after which it is gone forever. Honestly, it's like they've brought back rationing. To be honest, given the quality of the script and the effort put into the special effects, I would honestly have expected a film with a name like this to turn up in my other DVD collection, which actually already features a vampire film.*** Score: D OQ: It's like a medieval gay bar... *I mean it. he's directed three films, this being the second, and is
listed about four other times as various film crew. |
|
|
|
||
Monsters vs. Aliens 3DFeb 28 Meh. Would have been an average animated film if not for the 3D effect, which is used quite well in most places. Aliens arrive on Earth and the only defence the US has is to send monsters in to battle. There's the Big Giant Susan, aka Ginormica, the Missing Link, a mad scientist cockroach, an indestructible blob and Insectasaurus. Some good parts, the President making first contact was hilarious. Set pieces were pretty and very detailed. Susan roller-skating with cars was very well done. Plot's not the most original, score is instantly forgettable and the cast are reasonably well known. Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie and Kiefer Sutherland being most obvious, but Renée Zellweger was in there and I didn't spot her. Score: C OQ: |
||
|
|
||
Bolt (3D)Feb 18 Hang on, isn't that the plot to Inspector Gadget? Cineworld actually have more showings of this film per day in 3D than in regular format., which makes sense because this is the first Disney animated film to be designed and 'filmed' in 3D. Their other efforts; Chicken Little (2005) and Meet the Robinsons (2007) were both converted to 3D after they were produced. As such, the 3D effect is used very well in this movie. The last film I saw in 3D was Beowulf, which I felt didn't work well. It only used the 3D effect in about half of the film, and the effect was to add depth to objects and people who still looked flat and two-dimensional. It was very distracting. Bolt has none of that . It doesn't rely on throwing things at the audience to exaggerate the depth illusion, but instead uses it in a subtle and effective way to add depth to each and every scene. You've probably heard the basic plot. Star of a hit TV show, Bolt thinks everything is real, mostly due to the production crew maintaining that illusion for him. When an accident separates him from Penny, he sets out across the country to rescue her with a couple of companions he picks up on the way. Now if that sounds formulaic and predictable, then think again. Bolt takes a fresh approach to this story, Mittens the cat desperately trying to convince him his powers aren't real, while Rhone the hamster believes Bolt is the genuine article. For those of you planning to see this at the weekend, be warned: The screen last night was almost sold out, and the Orange Wednesday folk were trailed all through the zip-barriers, all the way to the cinema door and out to the complex's door. Anyone coming to the queue after I got there would have been queueing outside. Luckily, I'd picked up both the tickets and the glasses for this on the way home last night, so I bypassed the lot of them. I had to work very hard to hold in the evil laugh. Seriously, I nearly gave myself a hernia. In a rather interesting twist, all the trailers for other Disney/Pixar movies were also shown in 3D. Monsters vs Aliens looks to be a hoot, and as usual the Pixar trailer for Up gives away almost nothing of the plot while still managing to instill a deep desire to go and see it when it's out. Score: A - OQ: Now I'm concerned on a number of levels. |
||
|
|
||
Frost / NixonJan 28 Unlike most of the people watching this, I actually have a pretty good impression about what Watergate was about, which wasn't as helpful as I'd thought it would be. The opening sequence consists of a montage of news-reel clips about the Watergate scandal, cut with excerpts from Frank Langella as Nixon giving his resignation speech live on television. What is conveyed well in these opening moments is the anger of the American people towards a president who was not going to be held to account for his criminal actions. How much of the plot is factual and how much is embellished is always going to be hard to tell. Initially Frost is only interested in interviewing the former president as he would interview anyone else. A chat show interview. He has no intention of eliciting an apology or confession from him. But the appearance fee he needs to pay Nixon means that for various reasons, no network will buy the show he is producing and slowly he comes round to the idea from his team that the interview must give Nixon the trial he never had. Nixon looks on the interview as a means to rebuild his reputation, regain the public trust and move back into politics. However the historical accuracy is largely irrelevant. This film may be about a historical event, but it is not a documentary. It's a character biopic. Both Frank Langella and Michael Sheen repeat the roles they created on the stage play. Ron Howard said he would only agree to direct if the studio would allow both actors to appear in the film version. Sheen, better known to most as Tony Blair in The Queen, shows that he really can get a person's inflections and mannerisms down to a tee. And Langella's performance as Nixon is so convincing, it's chilling. The two actors kept up their character even between filming, so as to maintain the rivalry between them. One of the lasting themes is the differences and similarities between Frost and Nixon. Both want accolades that may be forever beyond their grasp, yet while David Frost is shown as constantly attending parties and galas and Richard Nixon is shown as a private man surrounded by only a few friends and colleagues, they are both portrayed rather excellently as lonely men. There's a beautiful contrast between an opening shot of Nixon boarding Marine One as Frost watches on television and sees the smile for the cameras fade as he turns away, and a similar falling smile on David's face later in the film. In many ways, this is like a boxing film between two fading champions. Both want to destroy the opposition, both want a comeback, but only one of them can win. Ultimately, it is possible to leave the cinema feeling pity for both men. Nixon's realisation that he can never regain what he lost and Frost knowing that he may never achieve anything this historic again. There is also a mention at the end, overplayed on a close-up of Nixon's face in the interview, that while television is used as an entertainment tool for the masses it can, if used correctly, accomplish something that no journalist, no prosecutor could ever manage. To show a man in complete defeat, ravaged by loneliness and self-loathing in defeat. It's a message that comes across in another of my favourite films Good Night, and Good Luck and that, if nothing else, would be reason enough to add it to my DVD shelf. Score: A OQ: |
||
|
|
||
DefianceJan 25 It's a fantastic story, made all the more amazing for being true. A group of Belorussian Jews flee the German death squads and set up camp in a forest. I found the story does focus more on one of the brothers, played by Daniel Craig, to the detriment of the other brother's story. The only downside to the film is that because it is mostly shot in a forest, there are parts of the film that end up looking like they were done on the cheap. The ending is a little bit Hollywood, but then I can't say with any confidence that's not what actually happened. Score: B- |
||
|
|
||
Seven Pounds Jan 25 Some fabulous performances from Will Smith, Rosario Dawson and a rather under-used Woody Harrelson. OQ: It's time. |
||
|
|
||
ValkyrieJan 24 Saturday, and what turned out to be a very popular Tom Cruise film. The queue to get in was enormous! It was out the bloody door! For what seems like a long time Cruise's films have suffered from what has affectionately been termed the "Tom Cruise Effect". This usually results in people not liking the film and giving it bad reviews simply because Tom Cruise is in it. It's an effect I first found out about when I wrote a review of War of the Worlds. However, Cruise has finally found a way around this in Valkyrie. People aren't giving it bad reviews because Tom Cruise is in it. They're giving it bad reviews because it's historically inaccurate! Not that most people will probably realise this. The few parts of the assassination plot that I remembered from school were all present. In any case, historical accuracy is all a matter of perspective and balance. Completely accurate historical films are called documentaries. Almost any other film has to, at some point, deviate from the historical record in order to tell the story well. What was more interesting was the performances from Cruise, Bill Nighly, Tom Wilkinson, Eddie Izzard and Terence Stamp. The story of how small details built up into unsurmountable obstacles. OK, so half the time you can tell that Tom has just shoved one hand up his sleeve and is folding two fingers into his palm to play the injured Stauffenberg. But a film that held a minutes silence before every day's shooting in his memory isn't going to take massive liberties with the truth. Score: B- |
||
|
|
||
The WrestlerJan 17 I think my comments to my sister as we were leaving summed this up. I'm glad I saw it, but I can't say I enjoyed it. The talent on display is quite impressive. I was a little worried by the marketing blurb that Mickey Rourke gives the performance of his career, since it's a little like saying Aaron Eckart's performance in The Dark Knight was better than in The Core. It's not saying much. Cheese left out in the sun for three days gives a better performance that Aaron Eckart did in The Core. The phrase can be interpreted in different ways. The trailer leads you to believe that it's a "Man screws up in the past, then gets his life back together" movie. It's not. Still, it was very emotive. Powerful performances from many of the cast, and Mickey Rourke does a very good job portraying his character. He conveys the emotions superbly. A little squeamish in places, and with an odd mixture of camera styles. Sometimes it's very documentary with the camera following a character and all you see is their back, other times it's very cinematic, panning around and showing the characters in a landscape. Totally impossible to score on the Saxon Film Scale, and not one that I can think of a suitable quote for. |
||
|
|
||
The SpiritJan 4
While Samuel L. Jackson isn't half bad as the villain, and certainly better than he was in Jumper, I can't help but feel this is mostly because of the well written script and the tight direction of Frank Miller. The graphic novel touches are easy to spot. Not just the occasional decent into black and while with a splash of red tie, but also in the visual metaphors, like Eva Mendes' locket being a symbol that she still remembers her roots and her love for the hero. Overall I can't really fault it, it's a comic book come to life. The visuals are very stylish and the acting is decent, but there's nothing desperately new to see and the plot's been done a thousand times before. A disappointing C+ |
||