One you’ve seen before.

There have been several great moments in cinema, films that mark these occasions are usually epic but not in the way you would think. These films are epic in their appeal not their size or budget, American Beauty is one great example. This film is quiet in its approach to some fairly bug issues, the main one of course being modern Family living, albeit in an American setting. The rat race has made the father catatonic distancing him from a mother who has all but disowned him and a daughter crying for some sane conversation at the dinner table.

American Beauty is just as the title describes; a Beautiful film about taking every moment and not regretting a thing. It’s and incredibly thought provoking film that develops ideas about prejudice, youth and sex very few films can claim that.

It’s not as funny as you expect...

There have been a fare few films this year that i have been excited about, on a whole they have been disappointing, With the exception of Star Trek and District 9 not a very good year. Well I have high hopes for Christmas and it started with “The Men Who Stare at Goats”, a comedy that I didn’t realise was going to be a silly as it was. I thought I was going to watch some intelligent comedy about the US military’s research into Psi-ops. It did cover that but it was a very haphazard film, you can tell the A list actors involved had fun making it as they goofball across the scene and stumble their way through what is a very silly subject for a movie.

Generally though despite a few laugh out loud moments it’s vastly disappointing, Ewan McGregor’s American accent continues to bemuse me! I think it s one of those movies that may need repeat viewings but the script is largely devoid of anything funny its more the situation, which they bleed dry. The films is saved by some of the performances with George Clooney leading the way as an utterly convincing American Soldier with “paranormal abilities”, Jeff Bridges follows suit and channels “the Dude” for a very funny performance.

ID4 ever?

This is the rather wierd news of an independence day trilogy.

"What we want to do in the next - it's actually two movies - we want to do a bigger arc. Independence Day was always like the king who leads his troops into battle against an evil force, and that stays like that" said Emmerich.
No script is yet in place, but "the idea is just to continue the story and actually I don't know how many years ago this was—twelve, thirteen, fourteen years ago—and just continue where it ended."
What about a title? He suggests "ID4-ever".

New Job: no time

As the title suggest, the reason this week has been a bit slack on update is because I have just started a new job. I have to things to write about and the first is The Reaping, it’s a biblical horror movie starring Hilary Swank. Surprisingly till the slightly OTT ending its quite effective, the plagues are represented very well and most of the scares come on thick and fast. Considering how much this film needs to fit in the pacing is very good to keep you hooked.

It’s rare of me to speak well about a horror movie as I believe it’s not good enough making your audience jump and most recent horror movies only seem bothered in making you jump. The Reaping isn’t much different it’s a very jumpy move but the jumps are very well done and had me jumping from the sofa on at least 2 occasions. Hilary Swank does ok as do the rest of the cast but with such quick pacing it’s hard to really take any notice of the acting.

All in all not a bad film really.

A new Clash...

Check it out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_Q7NlAlZEA&feature=player_embedded

though im really not sure about the tagline!!!

RRRRaaaaaaaGGGHHHHHHHH!

talk on Jurassic Park 4

"There is a great story for the fourth one that I would be interested in getting involved with and it's nothing like the first three. It sort of takes the franchise off in a completely different direction, which is the only way I would want to get involved" says Johnston.
He adds that it won't be a storyline of people surviving a dinosaur attack on an island as "We've done that and it's been done three times."
The new idea however "would take it off in a whole other trilogy basically, but when it gets to that level it's sort of about studios and Steven [Spielberg's] thing and who knows" he says

Hard hitting or missing

Syriana is a thriller through and through; it has a lot of winding plots and character arcs and it eventually a satisfying viewing experience. All of that said it is a little convoluted and i wouldn’t blame anyone with less than tabloid knowledge of the Middle East and the oil problems to fell a bit, well patronised by this film. The dialogue is so full of political tosh that most regular movie goers will hate this.

Some of the characters are well picked and played though; Matt Damon is brilliant as the suffering father. George Clooney is fantastic, his dedication to this role is clear at plays it with utter conviction; just wait till you hear his Arabic. I’d write more but pizza’s on its way...

Teken movie...

If film posters told the truth...

Out with fizzle…

Perhaps it is a statement to how bad the fourth Alien instalment is that Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has never returned to big budget filmmaking. No doubt Amelie is a beautiful film (more about that later) but Alien Resurection is about as far from a resurrection as you could have made.

Joss Whedons wise cracking script is too comic for the Alien series, you just get the felling that no one was taking it serious enough. That’s a big flaw, yes we are aware that this is science fiction but the fear is very real. In all three films before it this was taken very seriously. It created some very effective films and is a statement to all three directors that they all went through such a bad time trying to get it onto the screen.

To busy listening to football commentary to continue so maybe more tomorrow.

Though just one more thing, how rubbish was the newborn! Maybe in a film of its own it could have been quite a scary creature but it was just so stupid looking!

If film posters told the truth...

Scream again

Talk on fourth scream...

"The fourth one is an ensemble. It'll take place right now, 10 years later, and it's going to take place in [Sidney Prescott's hometown of] Woodsboro. We'll have our three main characters, and we'll be introducing several more" says Williamson.

If film posters told the truth...

Michael Bay’s ego is an island!

Michael Bay is a complete nightmare, a script and storyline that is basically an excuse to have an explosion every five minutes. That was a summary of every Michael Bay film I have ever seen! Let’s take the Island as an example, it brings up some interesting issues and questions about cloning, playing god and the cost of life. Of course this is a Michael Bay movie so who cares about that we have the main characters hanging of a big R on the side of a very tall building, f*ck yeah explosions and bad effects follow.

The Island isn’t without its good points, like most of Bay’s films it is shamefully self indulgent, most apparent when Ewan McGreggor mocks his accent and love for bikes. These scenes are entertaining but dumb down what could be a very thought provoking film. The action is of course an all out frenzy of explosions, jittery cameras and unbelievable situations, which do make for a fun ride at the expense of a headache of course. It’s just the unwritten law of cinema in the summer for every Dark Knight there must be a Transformers and Michael Bay will always be on hand.

As for what he’s doing now, well apart from murdering classic horror movie with Platinum dunes awful remakes, Transformers 3 release date is July 1st 2011. No doubt more Brawn than brain and of course Megan Fox bending every which way!

Three men and a bride

Exciting news for fans of three men and a baby / little lady...
Steve Guttenberg tells WENN "Disney's developing Three Men and a Bride. That's going to be a smash. A smash hit. They're bringing everybody back for that. Nobody knows about it. I'm the first to talk about it."