Quite recently as you may all be aware of, is that the new Harry Potter film has come out and it's part one of two parts.
Now before I start I don't like Harry Potter and in my defense I gave it a good go. I watched two and a half of the first three Harry Potter films (can't remember their names) and was completely bored of them. But anyway part 1 has come out and I have noticed people coming away from the film slightly disappointed.
The disappointment is that the film feels like an incomplete story requiring you to watch part 2 to enjoy and understand the story fully.
This in film is unacceptable and is completely unfair.
The only two times I can remember where I had to watch the next part of the film were The Matrix squeals and the Pirates sequels.
If you cant explain or execute a story in one film, then the story/book/comic/theme park ride should be considered unfilmable. But in the two examples I have mentioned there was no need for a part 1 and 2 to the story (no idea on Harry Potter mind as I have not seen it) and could have been just the one film.
Also artistically a film can work over two and a half hours, look at Ben Hur, Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai for examples, so there is no excuse for this part 1 and 2 rubbish.
Use intermission's again Hollywood as you will make plenty of money back from Harry Potter...oh yeah sorry you only care about money, not the final product.
I mean I can watch The Empires Strike Back, enjoy it and not need to watch the first one to enjoy it. Just not Star Wars but James Bond, Batman, The Godfather and Indiana Jones. There should be no excuse for the audience member who hasn't seen the film before or the inevitable second part after, to enjoy the film they are watching there and then in the cinema. It's called effort!!!!!!!
I also hate it when you have to got outside the film to enjoy/understand whats going on. When I say going "outside" I mean having to read the book, read twenty years of a comic franchise or what the director says in interviews to explain what the hell is going on in a scene or even the film itself sometimes.
A good example of this is Richard Kelly's film Southland Tales as he expected everyone originally to buy the three prequel comics to the film, so everyone is up to date to what is going on in the film.
Yes I know what you are thinking and agree with you...What a pretentious prick.
So he showed his film in Cannes to film critics from around the world (who I very much doubt read the comics) and surprise, surprise got booed big time .
So Sony (who I think bought the film after Cannes, God knows why as it was clearly a mess from what I saw of the final product never mind the Cannes cut of the film) got Richard to shoot some new scenes and put the three prequel comics at the beginning of the film to explain the story better.
At least Sony saw that the idea of people having to buy the comics to know what was going on in the film was stupid, but I think they bought rights purely to put on the TV adverts "from the director of Donnie Darko". Which is how Hollywood works I'm sorry to say and they know people will watch part 1 and 2 of Harry Potter.
Next up The Hobbit part 1 and 2.
....Great.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Sunday, 7 November 2010
This weeks reviews!!!!!
Scanners
Plot
A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.
Review
Now this is a good director who leaves his trademark (machinery of evil and horror from within) which adds to the film unlike Possession earlier. Scanners is still a great film but has aged a little and sometimes the dialogue is a little wooden but in all fairness to Cronenberg and according to Wikipedia
"Because of the oddities of Canada's film financing structures at the time, it was necessary to begin shooting with only two weeks' pre-production work, before the screenplay had been completed, with Cronenberg writing the script between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. each morning throughout shooting."
I asked for my aspirin an hour ago bitch!!!!!!!
So taking that on board I can see why the dialogue can at times feel a bit rusty. But that really is the only negatives with Scanners unless you hate or find some of Cronenberg's graphic approach too disturbing, esspecially the end which I won't ruin if you haven't seen it. I don't mind gore/violence in films as long as it's used to further the film in story or character.
Final word
Classic film and is worth a watch
Possession
Plot
A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.
Review
Recommended by the film critic Mark Kermode and considered by him to be an underrated classic horror film.
Well not to me it's not, as found it a pretentious piece of rubbish; I mean right from the get go the dialogue felt art house/forced and completely unnatural to how real people talk.
Yes the film is as much pretentious as this press photo of the film.
No tension and the director trying to be clever for the hell of it, a perfect example of this is when Sam Neil's character is being interviewed with the camera going around him and the interviewers, completely distracting the audience and purely done so he can be an auteur and leave a directors trademark. Fair enough filmmakers wanna leave a trademark/signature but for God's sake it don't let interfere with the bloody film!!!!!!
Turned it off after the forty minute rule and can never see myself giving it another go.
Final Word
Made just to shock people and be arty, very similar to Antichrist and that to me was the same vibe as this.
Frozen
Plot
Three skiers are stranded on a chairlift and forced to make life-or-death choices that prove more perilous than staying put and freezing to death
Review
Yes I know thats not the films poster but I liked that one I found, anyway...Well Frozen had the typical horror film formula that?s either going to work or isn?t. The first forty minutes was typical character building to get the audiences to care when the main leads are in danger. This is important to get right in a slasher horror film but this film didn?t, in fact the characters couldn?t have been more bland or predictable and I found them to be rather irritating.
Unfortunately this frozen wave isn't in the film.
It also set things up with supporting characters that isn?t further addressed and made me feel that I was being messed around by the writer and director of the film. All these possible plot and character setups were clearly just put there to make it a film rather than a short film.
So after 40 minutes of being messed around for character building that adds no emotion to the three main characters and set ups in the story that never get going, they finally get stuck on the lift and begin to freeze to death.
So now all three of them are trying to think of a way to get out of their current predicament.
So at this point I?m looking forward to how they work out ways of getting of the lift alive and going wrong time to time. Only problem is (well technically more than one) that their ideas to get off the lift are stupid, almost stupid as stupid as Open Water 2. So stupid in fact the main bloke of the film tries jumping off the lift and I immediately nod my head and almost laugh, but then I quickly remember I have already lost 40-50 minutes of time because of this film. But I still think what could happen if he jumps down to keep myself amused while the three characters talk more rubbish just to make it a feature film rather than a short film.
1. He falls and breaks his legs, dies from infection or blood loss or hyperthermia
2. He falls and breaks his neck, dead instantly
3. He falls and snaps his back in half
Just drop and die you twat!!!!!!
Even thinking about how he could die couldn?t amuse me but finally and rather stupidly jumps and breaks his legs and cant move from his spot.
What a surprise I think to myself as the idea was never going to work and was just stupid from the get go.
The director doesn?t hide away from the gore either showing bone and pretty much the injury in fine detail, which felt very cheap to me and seen to death before with the Saw franchise. So I decided to use the 40 minute rule, in fact I gave the film about an hour, so it had more than a good chance to save itself.
It never worked as a horror film even though it clearly used the same formula/rules of most slasher horror films. It never made me jump just gore used constantly to shock that has been done half to death in today?s films.
Final word
Boring and using the 40 minute rule sums it up really on how terrible this film is. On a funny side note according to IMDB Frozen is called "Turkey" in Turkey.
Into the Night
Plot
Ed Okin's life is somewhat out of control. He can't sleep, his wife betrays him and his job is dull. One night he starts to drive through Los Angeles and he finally ends in the parking garage of L.A. Airport. Moments later a beautiful young lady jumps onto his bonnet and he finds himself being chased by four Iranians. What follows is a wild chase through the streets of Los Angeles
Review
Turned it off after 40 minutes and found it really, really boring. I think people go on about this film just because of all the cameos.
I don't care who turns up in a film, as long as they make a good film and not just piss about like they did in this film.
"Maybe what the movie needed was more professional discipline and less geniality. As a rule, it's probably better to throw the party after the filming is finished" Roger Ebert
Couldn't have said it better.
Final word
Yeah I could have done a longer review for this one but I really don't wanna waste more of my time with this one. Esspecially with a John Landis film when he should have went to jail for The Twilight Zone.
Film of the week
Scanner by miles as the others were just total rubbish
A scientist sends a man with extraordinary psychic powers to hunt others like him.
Review
Now this is a good director who leaves his trademark (machinery of evil and horror from within) which adds to the film unlike Possession earlier. Scanners is still a great film but has aged a little and sometimes the dialogue is a little wooden but in all fairness to Cronenberg and according to Wikipedia
"Because of the oddities of Canada's film financing structures at the time, it was necessary to begin shooting with only two weeks' pre-production work, before the screenplay had been completed, with Cronenberg writing the script between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. each morning throughout shooting."
So taking that on board I can see why the dialogue can at times feel a bit rusty. But that really is the only negatives with Scanners unless you hate or find some of Cronenberg's graphic approach too disturbing, esspecially the end which I won't ruin if you haven't seen it. I don't mind gore/violence in films as long as it's used to further the film in story or character.
Final word
Classic film and is worth a watch
Possession
Plot
A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.
Review
Recommended by the film critic Mark Kermode and considered by him to be an underrated classic horror film.
Well not to me it's not, as found it a pretentious piece of rubbish; I mean right from the get go the dialogue felt art house/forced and completely unnatural to how real people talk.
No tension and the director trying to be clever for the hell of it, a perfect example of this is when Sam Neil's character is being interviewed with the camera going around him and the interviewers, completely distracting the audience and purely done so he can be an auteur and leave a directors trademark. Fair enough filmmakers wanna leave a trademark/signature but for God's sake it don't let interfere with the bloody film!!!!!!
Turned it off after the forty minute rule and can never see myself giving it another go.
Final Word
Made just to shock people and be arty, very similar to Antichrist and that to me was the same vibe as this.
Frozen
Plot
Three skiers are stranded on a chairlift and forced to make life-or-death choices that prove more perilous than staying put and freezing to death
Review
Yes I know thats not the films poster but I liked that one I found, anyway...Well Frozen had the typical horror film formula that?s either going to work or isn?t. The first forty minutes was typical character building to get the audiences to care when the main leads are in danger. This is important to get right in a slasher horror film but this film didn?t, in fact the characters couldn?t have been more bland or predictable and I found them to be rather irritating.
It also set things up with supporting characters that isn?t further addressed and made me feel that I was being messed around by the writer and director of the film. All these possible plot and character setups were clearly just put there to make it a film rather than a short film.
So after 40 minutes of being messed around for character building that adds no emotion to the three main characters and set ups in the story that never get going, they finally get stuck on the lift and begin to freeze to death.
So now all three of them are trying to think of a way to get out of their current predicament.
So at this point I?m looking forward to how they work out ways of getting of the lift alive and going wrong time to time. Only problem is (well technically more than one) that their ideas to get off the lift are stupid, almost stupid as stupid as Open Water 2. So stupid in fact the main bloke of the film tries jumping off the lift and I immediately nod my head and almost laugh, but then I quickly remember I have already lost 40-50 minutes of time because of this film. But I still think what could happen if he jumps down to keep myself amused while the three characters talk more rubbish just to make it a feature film rather than a short film.
1. He falls and breaks his legs, dies from infection or blood loss or hyperthermia
2. He falls and breaks his neck, dead instantly
3. He falls and snaps his back in half
Even thinking about how he could die couldn?t amuse me but finally and rather stupidly jumps and breaks his legs and cant move from his spot.
What a surprise I think to myself as the idea was never going to work and was just stupid from the get go.
The director doesn?t hide away from the gore either showing bone and pretty much the injury in fine detail, which felt very cheap to me and seen to death before with the Saw franchise. So I decided to use the 40 minute rule, in fact I gave the film about an hour, so it had more than a good chance to save itself.
It never worked as a horror film even though it clearly used the same formula/rules of most slasher horror films. It never made me jump just gore used constantly to shock that has been done half to death in today?s films.
Final word
Boring and using the 40 minute rule sums it up really on how terrible this film is. On a funny side note according to IMDB Frozen is called "Turkey" in Turkey.
Into the Night
Ed Okin's life is somewhat out of control. He can't sleep, his wife betrays him and his job is dull. One night he starts to drive through Los Angeles and he finally ends in the parking garage of L.A. Airport. Moments later a beautiful young lady jumps onto his bonnet and he finds himself being chased by four Iranians. What follows is a wild chase through the streets of Los Angeles
Review
Turned it off after 40 minutes and found it really, really boring. I think people go on about this film just because of all the cameos.
I don't care who turns up in a film, as long as they make a good film and not just piss about like they did in this film.
"Maybe what the movie needed was more professional discipline and less geniality. As a rule, it's probably better to throw the party after the filming is finished" Roger Ebert
Couldn't have said it better.
Final word
Yeah I could have done a longer review for this one but I really don't wanna waste more of my time with this one. Esspecially with a John Landis film when he should have went to jail for The Twilight Zone.
Film of the week
Scanner by miles as the others were just total rubbish
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