This weeks reviews!!!!!

In advance I apologize for the lack of photos etc this week, got back home late for this weeks reviews. But on a positive not I have added a "Film of the week" to this weeks reviews and might keep it.




Disclosure

Plot
With his company about to merge, a happily married and successful computer expert is expecting a promotion. Instead the job goes to a woman from another plant with whom he had an affair in his bachelor days. His new boss, not only dangerously sexy but equally dangerously ambitious, has climbed the corporate ladder by exerting undue influence on the CEO. She apparently tries to pick up where they left off but he just about manages to resist. This liaison is soon revealed to be part of her master plan to consolidate power and use Tom as a scapegoat to cover her technical misdeeds. As his position at work comes under increasing pressure he decides to file charges of sexual harassment. This is the last thing the company needs.







Review

Thought I would finally check this out as it was in Dr Kermode top "10 best geeky computer films" and I have always enjoyed his recommendations.

Here's the link for that btw
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/gallery/2010/oct/10/best-geeky-computer-films

Well I thought it was a run of the mill thriller, I went into mind not having a clue what it was about. Which is surprising for me as I tend to consider myself to have a good knowledge of films.
Heard of the film before mind and I remember the films poster as it is very iconic but as a film, it just looked like another Basic Instinct to me, hence why I have never really gone out of my way to watch it before.
Anyway that's my excuses out the way and I thought he film was...wait for it...a run of the mill thriller.
I think the problem with me watching it now is that a lot of film producers have coped the thrillers of the eighties and early nineties, using them as a general template for their True Movies/Channel five straight to TV/DVD films.
I found it to be incredibly predictable after a "hot" meeting between Michael Douglas and Demi Moore, before that I was waiting for it to start (felt like thirty minutes until the film actually got going). During that time is was trying to build good supporting characters which it unfortunately failed and that he's a caring father in the opening 5-10 minutes which was so...so cheesy.
But to be fair it did have it moments with a well thought out legal thriller with Demi Moore and Michael Douglas, especially when they are both being interviewed by each others lawyers, which had some great writing and great acting from everyone.
But it was and I will say it again...very predictable but what the held the film together and kept me interested was Michael Douglas.
Shows in this film very clearly why he was leading man for so long (and still should be really) in the nineties.


Final Word
Run of the mill thriller that's at least worth a watch but could have easily been a bore fest without Michael Douglas

Red

        

Plot
When his idyllic life is threatened by a high-tech assassin, former black-ops agent Frank Moses reassembles his old team in a last ditch effort to survive.

Review

Managed to get to an early screening for this film and was unfortunately not surprised from my pre judgements from the trailer and clips I had seen online. 

It's suppose to be an action/comedy film but I did not laugh at it and the action was incredibly bland, so bland that it makes Transformers he Citizen Kane of action films.
Once again like most terribly ill thought action films of today, slow motion scenes runs riot and I have no idea how directors think this build tension in their films as it's so overused and has lost it's edge in the current generation of filmgoers.
The comedy I think was suppose to be a little tongue in cheek but Bruce Willis the lead of the film cant pull this off, as clearly seen in Kevin Smith's Cop Out. The only ones who pull this off in the film were John Malkovich and the scene stealer of the film Helen Mirren.
The big gag of the film is "Oh look at us were old farts and one now lives in a retirement home and one likes being a florist, but we still like our guns and do kung fu etc".
I think if the film worked a bit more on its script and just didn't throw in big names into the film (Yes I like Morgan Freeman but he's solely in this film because he's Morgan Freeman not the character he's playing) just because they are big names.
It's also based on a good comic book series by DC Comics from what I have been told, so why didn't they hire the writers of that comic book I ask myself as the writer added no humour to the script.
But just like Jonah Hex (another DC Comics film but is a total train wreck of a film) this film will be forgotten about in a years time, but it will end up on telly on ITV2 in two/three years, five times a weeks as the TV rights for this will be cheap as chips

Final word
Not worth watching in the cinema but passes the time. John Malkovich and Helen Mirren stopped me from giving up on this one.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Plot
Two men fortify a nondescript British apartment so it can serve as a prison, and then kidnap a woman and tie her to a bed. Before there's even time to react, we're plunged into a very nasty situation, but not a simple one.

Review
I missed this in the cinema and I really wish I had watched it in the cinema as it's a cracking, smart and twisty British thriller.
This is defiantly one of my contenders for film of the year alongside Bad Lieutenant and Inception, as from start to finish I was gripped and it kept giving you another big twist though out the film. It genuinely leaves the audience guessing through out the film with great performances from all three leads.
Normally not a massive fan of Gemma Atkinson and tend to find her very average in everything else I have seen but she is dynamite in this film with a great performance from her as the title character Alice Creed.
This film had everything I would want in a film
1. Great script
2. Good director who keeps the flow of the film on a knife edge
3. Great performances from everyone and makes me completely emotionally engaged with all characters.
4. Well thought out plan set firmly in reality that goes horribly wrong due to the human element.


Can I think of a negative though in this film that they should have fixed...hmmm...marketing.
I'm sorry but it's unfair that a film like this has to compete against blockbusters that have millions put into promoting their films. This film deserved that and I wish more studios would put more money or effort into selling/making more films like this. Only reason films like Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean make money is because they are well promoted. The only promotion I saw for this film when it came out was on Friday Night with Jonathon Ross and mentioned for five minutes...and that was it. POTC and Transformers I am drowned with when it comes out on TV, radio and internet.

Criminal

Final word
Just watch it, fantastic little British film.

Tetsuo: The Ironman

Plot
A strange man known only as the "metal fetishist", who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese "salaryman", out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of disease that is turning his body into scrap metal, and that his nemesis is not in fact dead but is somehow masterminding and guiding his rage and frustration-fueled transformation.

Review
What a trippy film reminding me within the first five minutes of David Lynch's Eraserhead and Darren Aronofsky's Pi with it's thumping, vile and trippy visual style. Never would have guessed this was made in 1988 as it's barely aged and is still disturbing now as it was back then.
All the way through the film you feel for the main lead character turning further and further away from his humanity and into a machine.
But I did have a good PMSL moment when his nob has transformed into a massive drill and puts it to use on some poor bird in the film.
It's a very "style over substance" film as, let's face it, a film about a man who turns into metal and is clearly a marmite film.

Final word
It's worth a watch as it reminded a little of Fear and loathing in Vegas as it was that trippy at times. I dug it but I can see people also being bored by it most of the times or as an "art for the sake of art" type of film.

The Social Network

Plot
A story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook.

Review
Headed into town to play on the new 360 Kinect, wasn't there very disappointed. But I still watched this film and wasn't disappointed and was well impressed with how well written this film was and its execution was perfect.
All casting in this film worked, he directing was well done considering it was very non-linear and the characters were just fascinating.
I think Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield are in for a good shout to get nominated for Oscars as well as Sorkin for screenplay in fact he has to win for screenplay in my opinion, as it's a complicated case (as well as computer coding involved at some parts) and he made it flow perfectly.

Final Word
Good film and I wouldn't hesitate to watch it again in the near future

 Film of the week
Well I was spoilt this week with two strong contenders for film of the year and a nice little foreign film discovery.
Hmmm....so its a toss between The Social Network and the Alice Creed film.

The Social Network is my film of the week but both Alice Creed and The Social Network are still equally in with a shout for film of the year.