What I have been watching lately.

Yes I know I haven't done this weeks reviews for a while and there are good reasons for this.

1. Not many films have come out that I want to watch in the cinema/DVD
2. Not many films on TV.
3. Busy trying to sell a flat
4. Work

So I might just scrap the "This weeks reviews" and just do one every month.

Anyway here are my brief reviews of what I have been watching lately.

Greenberg
Review
Hard one for me to review as it's not a bad a film but the humour just isn't to my liking at all. Turned off after 40 minutes as I wasn't enjoying and didn't know at times if it was a "growing old film" or a comedy or a drama...just felt out of place for me but I remember seeing the trailer for it and thought I might not like it

Final word
Hard for me to think of a final word for this one...If you liked Garden State (I liked that thinking about it) this will be more your cup of tea.
If you like silly comedy like Zoolander and Tropic Thunder to which Ben Stiller does normally, then avoid this one.


The American
Review
Boring film with nothing happing most of the time and very pretentious. The whole film was trying to build this cold tense atmosphere with George Clooney's character but never did in the forty minutes I watched of it.
Yes I used the forty minute rule which means it's a shit film. I don't mind films wanting to be arty but I mind films where absolutely nothing is happening. The director of this film clearly thinks that filming in exotic locations is going to make up for an empty film...clearly has little respect for the audience so I have little respect for his artistic endeavours in this.


Bakjwi (Thirst)
Although somehow irregular and overlong, Thirst is wonderfully well-directed, stylish and bloody, and its pitch-black humour sets a hugely bizarre tone, utterly hilarious, in Park's surreal gore fest - and check out Kim Ok-Vin in this as she's fantastic in it.
Not as good as Oldboy but my God much better then I'm a Cyborg but I can see it being a bit of a marmite film.
I think Chan Wook Park is one of the best living directors today and once again his film is a nice breath of fresh air.
It's really worth a watch this one and I wish I watched this one in the cinema.

Monsters (2010)

Well this is a classic film without a shadow of a doubt to me and a strong contender for my film of the year as well.

The two leads are fantastic in this film but I have no idea who they are, but I found out the two actors got hitched not too long after the film was finished, might explain why they had great chemistry together in this ;)

The visual effects for an apparently five hundred thousand pound budget is money well spent to me. The visual effects looked like the quality of a 30-40 million dollar film.

But the real hero of this film is the director Gareth Edwards…Just talented and has a big future ahead of him. The crew of the film was him, a sound man and the actors…that is it…Just wow.

If you haven’t seen, check it out in the cinema as it’s easily alongside some of the best films this year.

Easy A

Well I enjoyed it but it did drag unfortunately in some parts and if it didn’t have Emma Stone in it…well it would have left the cinema after the 40 min rule, as she was that good in it.

Bland, predictable and not a very good job from the supporting cast didn’t help as well as a black comedy approach which fell flat at the end with a “happy/moral” ending.

Average film in all fairness but further proof that Emma Stone is a star in the making and this will be forgotten about very soon.

Thirteen Days (2000)

No idea how I missed this film but I quite enjoyed it but it is a bit cheesy, you know the whole “American dream” sort of feel with the music, saluting the America flag every five minutes, the bad guys are always ugly/dirty and the Americans giving each other high fives all the time.

If you can’t stand any of that then don’t watch this film but luckily for me I found the subject matter very interesting (even though I know what’s gonna happen as I know my history) and is well told. The performances are a bit average considering it has a decent cast but what holds it together is the great script.

Bit of a sudden ending to the film and we also didn’t have the bit after the credits where it tells you what happened to the real life people after the events of the film.

But as a whole a decent watch and I enjoyed it.

Clubbed (2008)

Christ what a boring film and yep, I turned it off after the 40 min rule. I shall list the problems I had

1. Annoying narrator who explains everything in the film and you will not like at all.
2. Very predictable and bland storyline
3. It’s called “clubbed” and I was expecting a film like Human Traffic where it would be about clubbing.
4. All the actors in this film are rubbish.
5. Makes the 80’s set period boring and makes no use of that era except for some cars parked outside people’s houses. Why set the film in a certain period and not use it at all??????
6. The writing and directing are poor in his film with no signs of spark at all.

A Might Heart

I enjoyed it but the film itself was very TV movie for me but the directing from Michael Winterbottom was spot on and gives the film that gritty look and feel that it needed. A great performance from Angelina Jolie that was Oscar worthy and a very tough subject matter handled with great care and heart but did it drag in parts and was predictable.

4.3.2.1 (2010)

Tries to be Britain’s answer to Doug Liman’s film GO but was just bright lights and edgy camera shots with no interesting characters and poor acting. It didn’t really make use of using five different point of view on the same story like GO did and never really got going. I liked it when Kevin Smith popped up in the film now and again mind.

Grown Ups

It’s not funny and I even hate talking about it, also as you may have already guessed I turned it off after 40 minutes. So how many rubbish films have Adam Sandler been in now then?, feels like about five now.

Devil (2010)

As it was only 80 minutes long I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to break my rule, as it’s more than half the film. But I thought to myself “I’m in a good mood so I will not use the rule on this one and it’s short anyway”.

My God I regret that decision as it’s painstakingly slow and feels like a rejected drawn out episode of the Twilight Zone. The twist was always gonna surprise people as it really could have been anyone in the lift, so I had no respect/admiration of it and the filmmakers clearly thought to themselves “The twist will save he film”.

Not surprised M Night Shamlyn (whatever his name is) had his dirty hands on this film as it reeked of his bad ideas of his previous films.