Jim Carrey: Man of many talents

Perhaps it’s just me but the number 23 was almost Jim Carrey’s 23rd film, almost being the operative word as I look for a way of tying the number into this entry. Watched it last night and enjoyed it, Jim Carrey still continues to surprise me and still continues to mature with his performances. Is he aging like a fine wine or a piece of cheese left in the fridge? This is an important question. He was known for his zany out there performances, with his rubber face and weird physical movements but then came the Truman Show. It showed us all what he was capable of, his performance was astoundingly effective and emotional and this from a man who has escaped from a Rhinos backside!

It should be said the rhino was fake but Jim Carrey is anything but, picking and choosing his roles between his old style like dick and Jane and yes man or Eternal Sunshine and this little film called the number 23. Nowhere near as good as the sublime Eternal Sunshine, 23 still works but where it works the best is by showing you Jim Carrey as you would never have expected him. Being able to play two characters helps; as the character Finglerling is a brooding sexy detective, tattoos cover his shoulder and his hair is slicked back. This character gives Jim a way of exploring this type of character for the first time and whilst in some scenes he can look a bit out of place, he does look good.

The film has a very winding plot which is easy to follow but still challenging enough, the ending may not be as refreshing as you expect but the hero drags his family along for the ride which is rare in these films of obsession and paranoia. You can catch the funny man next in A Christmas Carol, the mo-cap version that promises to be very good.

The Return... of crap

Ok so got round to watching The Return, I shall describe by telling you if I had paid to see it I would have demanded my money back for the almost hour and a half of my life I wasted watching it. The funny thing is, it’s not all that bad, just completely and utterly pointless and unexciting, not to mention not scary at all; big fault in a scary film. Since Buffy I nothing but loathe Sarah Michelle Gellar, can’t stand her annoying nasal voice, though it must be said I did find her strangely attractive in cruel intentions but I defy any man who didn’t.

Enough about her, why was this film so uninspired? Well not much happens to be honest, the clever plot twists and turns do make you wonder what’s going on but I felt like I could have turned the film off at any point and would not have been bothered about finding out what happens next. It was just thoroughly boring and not scary in the slightest.

Moving swiftly on from that and never “returning” to it, we’ll go along the Sarah Michelle Gellar tangent to Buffy Creator Joss Whedon. Bouncing back from the critical bashing he got for dollhouse, he’s got another season of that coming out and several movies’ on the slate. He has a habit of making a series that quickly becomes a cult, for instance I watched Serenity and loved it. It made me watch Firefly and I loved that, can’t see why they cancelled it!? I would put a bet on Dollhouse being cancelled sooner than the fans want it to though.

http://twitter.com/WhedonFanNews

Russel Brand: The Swine!

Well this was going to be about a film called the return, which would have been apt as it is kind of my return. Instead I watched Russell Brands second stand up, Doing Life Live. It is very funny but there is something that feels very wrong about watching him. It’s not a bad thing; in fact I think it very much works in his favour. He talks about things that a lot of people think and never say and he says it in such an eloquent way; I’ve tried matching his word use in this entry!

Of course I can see why some people don’t like him, you can’t swagger around like a character out of a Chares Dickens story acting like a sex god without people thinking your arrogant. Then again it’s his persona, it’s what has made him into what he is today, and he’s unashamed about how he got there. Onto the relevance of Russell Brand on a blog about movies, he has made a few; from a little bit part in St Trinnians (awful) to stronger parts Forgetting Sarah Marshal (scene stealing), but now he has to carry a film.

His turn as pop star Aldous Snow must have impressed the studio, as they green lighted “Get Me to the Greek”. The film is about Aldous Snow as an out of control British Rock Star, trying to get to a gig on time. Not much acting involved for Brand then who has made a career out of being exactly like Aldous Snow, replacing music with comedy and presenting of course. It still looks funny and he was brilliant in Sarah Marshal, let’s hope it lives up to the hype.

Mr Brand also has a few more projects on the horizon including Shakespeare’s tempest, where he is playing Trinculo the jester. Perfect casting for Mr Brand me thinks, hopefully they stick with ye olde English! To follow what this dandy gentleman gets up to check out his twitter feed, or better still add my feed. Yes I have given in and started twittering.

http://twitter.com/Beeonfilm
http://twitter.com/rustyrockets

short and sweet

Well I have found some work so this may be a bit harder to update, to cut corners I’m not adding the all important photos to my blog, nut who cares about that when the writing is so good ah?

Watched Hoodwinked the other night, a rather crude computer animated film definitely for the kids. Still it was a nice effort. Saw the new Harry Potter last week, the only thing to really say at this time is that it was the funniest so far.

Moving onto some news on this brief update, Pirates of the Caribbean is set for a fourth which should begin filming next year. Please no Kiera Knightly and please tone it down a bit, The Black Pearl was brilliant and it all just got a bit OTT after that.

Time to go, sorry the entries have been brief but better than nothing at all.
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Just anoher one of my thoughts...

Well, this is starting to feel a little more regular ah!? Well I must apologize for the terrible errors in my last post. Seem as I'm having a literacy test soon i should really sort that out ah?

I only have one thing on my mind at the moment and that is the slated prequel to Alien!! At first the news sounds terrible, taking it back could be risky, if its done with snazzy effects and in 3D it will not look right, just think if the Star Wars prequels everything was too shiny! Well its not all bad, Ridley Scott is on board and even though its doubtful he'll direct its very good to know he's involved in some way.

Watched a few new things but I'll talk about them some other time, I've just had dinner and feel like lying completely still and watch There will be blood.

Ok then, bye

Summer Sizzles

The summer is still in full swing, which means that blockbuster season is really heating up! We’ve Robots wanting to destroy us all, the typical remakes and a rather good sci fi reboot. I haven’t seen all hat this summer has to offer and as usual will have to offer apologies for not updating this in a while I’ve been a bit busy worrying about other things.

Transformers is the film I will touch on first, I have a review for it and should have it online sometime soon. In the meantime here’s a taster of what I thought of Michael Bays latest OTT ego spewing effort. It was dumb, but it was fun. That’s it seriously those are he only things really worth saying, only certain people of a certain age and of a certain Transformers Disposition will really get a kick out of it. Everyone else will have seizures, well maybe not that bad but go and see it and you know what I mean.

Next we have Terminator Salvation, I hope to write review for this but much like this blog I have been a bit lacking in the time dept. Terminator was ok, for me it just wasn’t Terminator just some post apocalyptic film about us vs. machines that happen to be the Terminators? It lacked the charm and the tension of the first two but saying that it did top T3, though that wasn’t hard, I could accept the female Terminator but robotic enlarging boobs? The appearance of a familiar face at the end didn’t work like it should of which really took away for it to.

I’m going to go now, but hopefully this means a new start for the blog, every Monday? Or just whenever I get the time to do this!!!

Just a short one...

Only to say sorry i have not posted in so long and that beeonfilm will finally be resuming normal service as of next thursday. I'll have a review of Public Enemies for you and what i have though of the summer so far.

Being unemployed is not so good, but having time to write is great.

This is late... what a jackass

Well I have no excuse for this rather late entry, it has been a miserable couple of weeks. Firstly you have to see this…

It’s really exciting but only if your geek and appreciate these kinda things. Then again if your really hardcore you may not like the look of any or all of these but what the hey, they look good.

I have watched far to may movies in the last week or so to even bother mentioning them all; I did watch the second Jackass last night. I don’t know if it’s me getting older and mature but the majority of the film I spent shaking my head and not laughing, only 3 maybe 4 years ago I probably would have laughed the whole way through and I stress probably. I just found half the things they did moronic and the laughter from them seemed to over the top for my liking but what do I know, I don’t eat horse poo for money.

The next piece of news makes me so angry I feel like smashing my head down on this keyboard, first read…

http://www.moviehole.net/200919363-exclusive-dutch-asked-back-for-predators

Yeah I know the predator reboot/remake/sequel whatever you want to call it looks like it is still going ahead! I can’t believe this, even if Arnie came back to acting he’s to old now. Oh man this is annoying.

More news, this time for xmen franchise, after the disappointment of The Last Stand and this summers Wolverine its looking bleak. Well now theirs First Class, with some of the younger mutants taking the limelight, well Anna Paquin who plays Rogue is up for it…

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/989/989758p1.html

Right I’m off now, sorry there’s not more but I really need to sort dinner…

Take care.

announcement

From this point onwards all beeonfilm will be posted on thursdays...

check out my Star Trek review that has just gone live...

A little late, but by no means lacking in quality...

Well I did start writing this yesterday, but seem as my Pc has decided it hates blogger I thought I would try today instead. So where was I yesterday well it has been an interesting week with hopefully a very good week to come with two interviews I could be back at work soon, yay! No more job centre for me, thank Christ!

Anyway, I saw Star Trek last night and much like my working life it looks like it has been re animated. My first message is to those who think Star Trek is the domain of geeks who dress up as Klingons or learn Vulcan, geeky Star Trek this is not. Its action packed and fast paced from the word go and it hardly lets up. All of the cast are brilliant as their predecessors and very enjoyable to watch, even very funny in places. Go see it or check out my review on my usual site if you want some more details, I will of course post it.

I did also watch 10 things I hate about you over the week, the first time I had seen it. It was good, most of these teen comedies feel like guilty pleasures when watched especially when you’re not a teenager. This one especially so, as it cleverly use’s Shakespeare’s basic premise of Taming of the Shrew to make a very entertaining witty film. Heath Ledger is great in it and I bring him up because its sad watching anything with him in anymore, knowing that a young actor was just getting to the top of his game when tragedy struck.

Well I didn’t really watch anything else and I wont count Carry on Cleo that was on ITV, so some news. Bradley Cooper who is the jock in Wedding Crashers and he’s also in this summers The Hangover is rumoured to be cast as face in next years film version of the A-Team. I don’t really know much about this actor so I wont hazard a guess as to whether that is good casting but either way I think an A-Team movie is a bad idea.

Ok with that I’m off; I have some interviews to prepare for. So the other day I discovered that according to the laws of entropy, the universe itself with eventually whither and die, making everything you do pointless, so you may as well just keep watching and reading.

An apology, followed by some good writing?

Firstly an apology, I didn’t post last week as it was a rather busy bank holiday. Family visiting from Scotland, an 18th Birthday and the boys weren’t feeling too great. I’m not coming up with excuses or anything. Also an apology for not having any images, the uploda thing on blogger is being rubbish and my son is haning off my shoulder crying for Sports candy (bloody lazy town!).

I did see Wolverine mid week; I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. I think that may be because I hyped the film up a bit too much, it felt like it was covering ground already tread and that’s not just me as a comic book fan speaking. Think of the first three x-men movies, which were pretty, much Wolverine pictures anyway! Its fair enough most of the comic books end up with the old clawed one saving the day in a different way. What I’m trying to get at is that the X-men movies already covered the whole Wolverine in weapon x programme making this film seem a little pointless. The film is saved by action sequences that are very well done and stand out cameos from some great mutants, Deadpool being the highlight. Where I was most disappointed was the guy they got to play Gambit (who happens to be my favourite Marvel hero), put simply he just wasn’t cool enough. When in action he was very cool and how I imagine it would look but in the danger of sounding like a fanboy with a stick up his ass he should have had red eyes! He should have been damn more arrogant and they didn’t seem to understand that Gambit is an anti-hero as well as wolverine and he just wasn’t scripted or played that way. I’ll stop their cause I’m getting a bit angry.

Anyway, not much film viewing going on at the moment, though I am looking forward to buying rolemodels tomorrow, if you haven’t seen it I suggest you do it is very funny. I did watch the illusionist the other night; it wasn’t to bad and would have been better if Christopher Nolans Prestige wasn’t so good. The Illusionist is the tale of Eisenheim who falls in love with a woman way above his social standing (as you do). As expected this goes tits up and our Illusionist goes into exile across the world, while there he seeks mysteries and a copy of the Prestige. When he returns he can make Orange Tree’s grow very fast and communicate with the dead. The story may seem predictable but just wait till the ending; the problem in this film lies in dull and un watchable characters. Edward Nortons Illusionist has his moments but most of the time he’s dialogue is ruined by moments of romantic melodrama that just don’t fit in with the film. If you want a film about turn of the century magicians please watch The Prestige, its brilliant.

Angles and Demons
I’m going to see Star Trek this Wednesday but next Wednesday I’m going to see Angels and Demons. I’m looking forward to it as I thought the book was much better than The Da Vinci Code, Angles and Demons is a faster paced more thrilling story that doesn’t get lost in its conspiracy theories and if the trailers are any indication it looks like the film is going to do the same.

Anyway, like I said sorry about last Sunday but I’m only human, keep watching and reading wont you theirs a recession on its cheaper.

What lovely weather, lets hope it continues...

Doing these columns on a Sunday is getting increasingly tiring, this is supposed to be a day of rest and I’m up at 6.30 writing? I think I might change the day but for now I’ll keep this up. If you haven’t watched Rocknrolla yet for fear that Guy Ritchie has lost his touch I suggest you watch it. Rocknrolla is a return to form in a London gangster romp that as we know suits him down to the ground. The film is easier to follow than revolver; it has some very watchable characters like Lock Stock and Snatch and it throws in some original idea's from the seasoned director. Guy Ritchie takes on the Russian Billionaires buying up land, football clubs and anything they can get their hands on! He deals with homosexuality and makes it very very funny; the parts I’m talking about are the funniest in the film, just watch for Gerard Butler’s reactions. Watch it because there’s no school like the old school and Guy Ritchie is the f*cking head teacher.

I did watch more movies this week but cant remember them for the life of me, which is a bad sign. Instead I’m going to do a preview thing of the next few weeks in cinema.

Wolverine: Xmen Origins
Next Wednesday, not this Wednesday I will be going to see the first of what is to be a very good summer. Wolverine in some ways is the Marvel comic film I have been waiting for about 5 years! It has Gambit in it and he’s not just a name on the screen (damn you Bryan Singer!) He’s a character. Whether or not Taylor Kitsch will do the raging Cajun any justice is yet to be seen but he looks the part. Of course it also introduces Deadpool, the deadly wise cracking assassin and lets face it there’s no one better to play him that Ryan Reynolds who has practically made a career out of wise cracking. What of the title character, well Hugh Jackman was born to be Logan it’s that simple. There is no way anyone else could play him now; Jackman plays Wolverine with great conviction. Playing the perfect anti hero that regularly flays his victims in the comics cant be easy but he does it so well. So let’s hope that this continues in what will be a great start to the summer, Claws crossed.

Star Trek
The week after I will be going to see this re invention by surely the lord of the geeks JJ Abrams. The man responsible for the irritatingly long but terribly addictive Lost has put it on himself to bring back star trek. He’s a brave man but despite the first few seconds of that awful trailer “I am James Tiberius Kirk!” the film seems to doing well. Early screenings indicate that the critics are eating it up and the fans that have seen it love it. Simon Peggs in it which is enough to get me to the cinema and Zachary Quinto (Slyer) looks like he has perfected the younger Spock and I’m looking forward to seeing how he does.

There are still more to come out after that, Transformers, Terminator and many more. Right I’m off to church…

I feel I'm close.... I am close

This weeks entry is bound to be a short one, just thought I would lower expectations a bit before I get started. Yesterday I saw my face on a cinema screen; it wasn’t a very big one but still a cinema screen. It was weird but I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be, we weren’t short-listed which I think is a crime! We were clearly one of the better ones on the day but you can see for yourselves as soon as it’s gone up online, I will of course post it. Down to what I have been watching this week, last night I watched Lucky Number Slevin, I had already seen it but it’s a great crime caper. I have never liked josh hartnett so much as his character Slevin, he wisecracks his way through the underworld of two rival gangs, though he spends half the film getting beaten up. Bruce Willis gives a cold performance as a hired killer setting poor old Slevin up for a fall. It is a great film with a great script; I recommend this one to anyone.

I also watched the film that got me into cinema in the first place, Jurassic Park. The whole trilogy for a fiver in Sainsburys, snip! The first one, clearly the best one is a landmark in cinema. Mostly for its effects, as most of the digital shots still stand the test of time and look sublime. The film is classic Spielberg Blockbuster with great characters although I never realised how irritating the kids were! Its suspenseful and everything an entertaining movie needs to be entertaining. Taking it back again I also watched the first Terminator and apart form the score sounding like it was done on a Casio keyboard it was just as good as I remember. One thing I never noticed before is how Arnie moves his eyes to as far as he can see before moving his neck, its so subtle but brilliant, exactly how a robot would look around as its surveys a scene.

Finally a new film,

Finally a new film, Déjà vu with the ever-dependable Denzel Washington who still hasn’t been able to better his performance in training day is good in this. He is convincing as an ATF agent, yeah I had no idea what the ATF was either! America has far to many agencies, great for films though. This is beside the point as Denzels character is shown a technology that allows people to view the past and eventually send a person back. It’s a little hard to follow at first but its basically the same theory as in Event Horizon, you know the whole folding time and space to pass through wormholes. Its good though, thrilling when it needs to be and some real big set pieces from Tony Scott, though Mr Washington does look uncomfortable doing tender moments.

Well that’s it for now, I have to make breakfast and look for jobs I wont get.
Keep reading and watching please.

Kids films and films with a little edge

Ah Easter, a lovely bank holiday full of kids movies and lots of people off work. Of course that’s not really an issue when you’re unemployed. It’s been an interesting week for film, I have seen quite a lot and kids movies are a big part of that. I watched Tron midweek, I couldn’t resist as I had just read a brilliant feature about it in an issue of Empire magazine. The feature showed just how ground breaking it was and after watching it again I would have to agree. The CGI was well ahead of its time, it looked like an 80’s arcade game but then that’s what it would have looked like in the story. It’s that it was made and that it was made so well that counts, of course now they are doing a sequel and you can check out the little sneak peak here on youtube…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPGWYAUF3v4



Another family feature I watched this week was Over the Hedge, a CGI animated tale about furry creatures taking on the world of humans. As usual any CGI animated film that isn’t Pixar never really hits the spot, Over the hedge is very much the same. It does have some funny characters. Its laugh out loud moments are usually down to Steve Carells bonkers squirrel that clearly has ADHD. I also had a week of classic movies, watching Truman Show; I had forgotten just how good it was. Its hard to think anyone ever thought Jim Carrey could do anything serious before it but he is amazing in this film. The Truman show is funny and moving and covers so many themes, from religion to media and what was to becomes the huge rise of reality TV, its all there.

Another controversial film I saw this week was Starship Troopers. Not often though of like that but very much so. The whole film is a statement about neo nazism, to the point where one of the characters appears at the end draped in what clearly is supposed to be an SS uniform. It was controversial in that viewed from a certain point of view it can be seen as a pro nazi film, it glorifies young adults using violence to gain what they need and clearly shows propaganda working its way into the populace. Of course apart from all that it is a fun movie and is supposed to be viewed as a satire of all things nazi but what the hell, do you want to know more?

Finally I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the new version. It’s a good film in its own right but when compared to the original there really is no competition. Lets compare Willy Wonka’s, Johnny Depps’s Wonka is funny and weird in an endearing way, you warm to him straight away and even though he tries to be sinister it just doesn’t work. On the other hand we have Gene Wilders Wonka, who not until the end are you really sure of him, half the time he seems sinister, the other half your not entirely sure just how same he is.

That’s it for now, over 500 words! Wow there was a lot to say and no time to say it.
So keep reading and keep watching…

It's all about the writing...

I’m very tired and having trouble of remembering what I’ve seen this week! The last couple of days I have been filming a sci-fi short film, I wont attempt to explain what the hell its about cause quite frankly I don’t know. I was acting in it, as the one and only character, it’s nerve racking and probably the last time I’ll do it. I use to think I was alright in front of the camera or on a stage but I seem to just end up being the same miserable (nose bleeding) loser in every thing I do. I think I’ll stick to my writing for now.

As for the writing, writing a screenplay is not easy but a lot of fun and is moving forward slowly but surely. I saw the Boat that Rocked over this week, a film about a pirate radio station with an amazing cast. I read a review before I saw this saying that there is no real plot and what there is, is to thin. Bear in mind first of all that this is a Richard Curtis movie, undisputed king of British rom-com. Now think about Love actually and its multitude of characters and how their stories tied together. The boat that Rocked may have had a paper thin plot but like love actually there were a multitude of characters to write for, unlike love actually which had a whole city to play with for all its characters this was on a boat. This smaller setting meant that most of the characters stories were lost on you and even the ones that weren’t didn’t really have any impact. It was funny though and should be seen as a little brit comedy gem.

I have also watched an inconvenient truth, a film about Al Gore’s presentation about climate change. Its very admirable that Al Gore has taken this on and the message does come across. It’s very American in its presentation but I did get the feeling that’s who it’s really aimed at. The Majority of the statistics that he presents basically have the rest of the world saying, “Ok we’re doing our bit, what about you?” and pointing at America. See it if you want some interestingfacts if you want to know about climate change, google it.

Last and definitely for least was yet another Nicholas Cage stinker called Next. A story of a man who can see his own future but masquerades as a Vegas Magician. Being honest this DVD broke down half way through but I really wasn’t that fussed, Nicholas Cage’s career has taken a nosedive of recent years and Next is just another step down. Its not Mr Cage’s fault, mainly the choice of films. Next is very badly written, awful lines that you really need to see to believe. Not to mention the awful special effects in what is supposed to be a big budget blockbuster.

Anyway I’m off, keep reading and watching please it all helps.