Top 10 of 2010

So here it is: the first one is my favourite of the year, after that they're in no particular order.

1) INCEPTION

The spectacular masterpiece of the year. I saw this three times at the cinema and was blown away every time. Words fail to express how i feel about this movie and it has come to tie as my favourite movie of all time.

2) Kick-Ass

One of the most fun, exciting and well directed films that has now placed director Matthew Vaughn on my top Directors list after Stardust and Layer Cake. With stellar performances form Nicholas Cage, Aaron Johnson and the superb Chloe Moretz as the trash talking ass-kicking Hit Girl.

3) The Social Network

Flawless, Flawless movie, who knew that Facebook could make such an interesting and provocative story, top notch Script, Direction, Script and Performances.

4) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

The best in the series yet with stellar Directing from David Yates (Who i might mention i believed in the whole time!)

5) Buried

When the critics used Hitchcock in the same sentence as this film they weren't lying. Ryan Reynolds outdoes himself and director Rodrigo Cortes make the entire movie set in a box far more thrilling than most high-budget thrillers.

6) Toy Story 3

What a great ending to a saga I started in my childhood, bringing tears of sadness, joy and a wealth of emotions. Lee Unkritch wraps up one of the greatest trilogies ever.

7) Easy A

Such an under-appreciated teen film from the new John Hughes, Will Gluck. Emma stone carries the film superbly with great comic timing and even retired-then-not-retired actress Amanda Bynes has a great turn as a Jesus Freak teen. Hilarious and very well played.

8) The Kings Speech

Technically I saw this in 2011 but... Superb Performances, Unique direction and a great script turn what could have been another dreary stuffy costume drama into one of the most involving films of the year.

9) How to train Your Dragon

I was dragged to this movie not wanting to see it and boy was I surprised, such a pleasant turn for Dreamworks who normally make incredibly childish animations. Great oice cast and brilliant script.

10) Tangled

Again, technically this year but... A superb take on the traditional fairytale and one of the first CGI films that really honors the origins of hand-drawn animation. Great voices, music and witty script.

All these films got 10/10 from me.

I'm Back

Now that i have completed a uni degree, i can now continue my blog, unfortunately i missed reviewing a plethora of fantastic films including INCEPTION (which is now tied for my favourite film) and THE KING'S SPEECH however i will be covering the golden globes and continue my reviews all of this year.

Bad news...

Hello, my readers (if there are any at all :P)

I am going on a hiatus from blogging just to catch up on my Uni work then i will return on my holidays and blog like there's no tomorrow.

Till then,

Happy movie going.

The Lovely Bones

So, let me preface this with a spiel about the book. I read the novel by Alice Sebold about 6 months ago and for me, I had never read a greater individual book, I still class it as the greatest book I have ever read. Now for the movie, contrary to most reviews, I personally liked the movie.

The story follows 14 year old Susie Salmon as she in murdered and then watches the world form an "in-between" and attempts to exact her revenge on her Murderer. There are certain changes form novel to film as there always will be, no novel translates directly to cinema (the Da Vinci code is a perfect example). But on a whole the point of the novel and it's themes come across into the film.

There are some fantastic performances as far as I am concerned form Stanley Tucci (Mr. Harvey) Saoirse Ronan as Susie, and Susan Sarandon as the grandmother who comes in to fix the shattered family.

Where most complains for the movie come-out are regarding the alleged 'overuse' of CGI. I saw this film and for the 1ts 40 minutes or so, there was none, then a bit for when Susie is in heaven and most of the time she is an a non-CGI forest. The CGI was necessary to differentiate the heaven and the real world otherwise audiences would be lost.

On the whole, a very good adaptation of a very hard-to-adapt book though not an absolute triumph of a movie, I had no problem with it. - 7/10

2009 in review (and a catch-up)

So I haven't posted in a while, Uni caught up to me and overcame me, but I'm Back so Ill do a 2009 mega review and give my top films as well, the quickly review the films I have seen in 2010.

AVATAR

Lets start with the grand pooh-bah. This film is awesome. I say this in the most common sense of the word as basically all it pertains to is Aristotle's theory of "Spectacle," but don't we all need a bit of spectacle in our lives every now and then. This film does have a plot and I wont go into details as pretty much everyone knows about it already. My only Nuance with this film is that the plot is almost exactly beat for beat form Pocahontas. But overall, I still get my goosebumps at the prescribed times and the 3d is amazing and CGI never fails to astound. Thumbs up Mr. Cameron, you did it again (though i must say i did like TITANIC just that bit more).

9/10

now for chronologically form where i left off after UP

Ponyo (on the cliff by the sea)

What an absolutely sweet little gem from the genius behind Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle. The story of a fish who longs to be human, finally gets her wish and she meddles with her father's magic and lands in the hands of a young Human boy.. A remarkably sweet children's film, beautifully animated, my only trepidation is that the story never seemed to have a proper forces of antagonism.

8/10

Aliens in the Attic

I went into this film (against my will) with absolutely no expectations, expect my surprise when I found myself laughing a great deal! This is no masterpiece by and far and certainly not the funniest movie but it is good for what it is: a children's action comedy. Cliched? maybe but fun nonetheless.

6/10

Fame

Such a disappointment, I had high hopes that this could reinvigorate the genre but alas it falls far too short. The story goes nowhere it covers so many years in the lives of multiple talented (and not so much) students of an Arts school. That's about it, it ends virtually the same way it finishes, the characters go nowhere. Don't get me wrong there are some good voices and occasional interesting scenes but it ultimately amounts to a scrambled mess of portraiture.

3/10

(500) Days of Summer

Finally a breath of fresh original screenwriting, a different take on the romantic comedy genre. The story is about a man (Joseph Gordon Levitt of 3rd Rock from the sun) who falls in love with a girl who doesn't love him back. A story told in a creative non-linear form that from the very opening titles had me in stitches. A fun endearing original and brilliant movie with great performances form Levitt and the wonderful Zooey Deschanel this is a movie not to be missed.

9 and a half/10

Whip It!

What a delightful debut from Actress-turned-director Drew Barrymore. The film follows a downtrodden teenage girl as she discovers herself through the sport of Roller Derby. Another fine performance from Ellen Paige (Juno). An enjoyable script as well, it is such a shame that this failed at the box office but "zeese things do 'appen" a fine movie, enjoyable and has a good message to boot.

7/10

Mao's Last Dancer

Really not a whole lot to say about this film, standard biopic, well made, but nothing special although I feel I must denounce the digital Cinematography, awful, just plain awful and films like angels & Demons and Night at the Museum 2 prove that it can look like film.

6/10

2012

The big shi-bang-a-bang, the end of the world. This film promises that and gives it to us in spades. It's Roland Emmerich so don't expect great character arcs or timeless storytelling. The one thing i found shocking was the Multi-plot structure (hyperlink cinema) it takes multiple interweaving stories throughout the end of the world cataclysmic events (and boy is it shiny! I heap accolades on the special effects people for the LA Earthquake and Enormous volcanoes) and they all eventually climax together in the wake of a Giant tidal wave. Thorough entertainment fare.

8/10

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

What an intriguing film this is. Having much attention put-upon by the death of Heath Ledger mid-shoot, the director, Terry Gilliam, resorted to a script change and cast additions to help the film get finished. The story is of a travelling "sideshow" run by the immortal Dr. Parnassus who made a deal with the devil. The show allows people to enter their wildest imaginations and fantasies and in return they must make a choice as to what direction in life they will take. The troupe come across a hanging (that's right) Tony (ledger) a mysterious man who seems to have his own agenda. The sheer originality of the script puts this film in a different ballpark and spot on performances mixed with Gilliam's extravagance make for a very interesting and different film.

8/10

Paranormal Activity

The film with all the buzz. 3 years ago a guy by the make of Oren Peli decided to shoot something and make a film for about $15,000, now he is the hottest name in Hollywood. A delightfully fun horror movie that puts the farce that is The Blair Witch Project to shame. Unfortunately for me I was in a cinema full of rude Bogan s**theads, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless, some scenes turned genuinely freaky and the physical effects baffle me. Fun, scary and worth the hype.

8/10

Zombieland

And that's another consecutive great original movie! Zombieland kicks-ass and I don't say that lightly, This film, inspired by the likes of Shawn of the Dead is another take on the genre and boy is it satisfying. Starring the laugh-out-loud Woody Harrelson who delivers lines so well it takes the movie to a whole new level. This is funny, scary, gory and endearing, my hat goes off to the filmmakers.

10/10

Old Dogs

I went to this movie for Robin Williams alone, i grew up with Flubber, Mrs. Doubtfire all his other films. But what a laugh i got from this movie. I found myself in fits of laughter, I certainly did not expect it to be so. The story follows an Unwitting father, forced to spend time with his new found kids, accompanied by his best friend (Travolta) There is slapstick galore and lame jokes a plenty but it's all in good fun and I found it much funnier than The hangover.

8/10

Sherlock Holmes

WOW.

That is all I can say. Guy Ritchie (Snatch, RocknRolla) goes all out with this rip-roaring action adventure that brings to life the classic detective. Multiple murders, mass conspiracy, and dare I say it, witchcraft? Not only does Robert Downey Jr. give what I believe to be worth at least an Oscar nod, but the whole cast do amazing jobs of their roles (though none outshine Downey) The script is clever, with twists and turns a plenty but what I loved was that this movie makes intelligence cool, a rarity in these times of robots and dumb blockhead heroes. Visually the movie lords over many, bringing London to vivid life and Ritchie fuses his wild camera style to suit the story in a perfect symphony of Cinema. It's movies like this that remind me why i want to be a filmmaker!

10/10

So that catches me up to the end of 2009.

My Top 10 of 2009

1- UP

2- Inglorious Basterds

3- Sherlock Holmes

4- Zombieland

5- (500) Days of Summer

6- Gran Torino

7- Changeling

8- AVATAR

9- Drag Me to Hell

10- Push

Thanks for reading.

UP - The sky's the limit for the best film this year (so far)

Wow, what a movie. So rarely do I get speechless at the end of a film nowadays and UP did it for me.

Up (the new Pixar masterpiece) tells the story of and lonely, elderly gentleman named Carl, who decides to fulfill his and his late wife's dream of going to Paradise Falls in South America, he does so by tying thousand of balloons to his house and up and away he goes to adventure. Tagging along is a young boy scout Russell.

This review is going to stay short, this film is perfect, superb story, characters, an amazing score, the 3D did annoy me slightly but the movie was so good that i wasn't particularly bothered, if you can see it in normal theatres, do so, you're not missing out.

Not one frame of this movie was wasted, not one iota at all, perfect dialogue, rich with subtext and humor, it had me nearly balling my eyes out in the first 10 minutes and i was held right till the very end. If there is one film you see this first half of the year, make it UP, pure and simple.

Complete and utter perfection, one of the best films I have seen in a long time - 10/10

(my first 10/10 this year!!!!!!)

District 9 - Overrated film of the year

This debut movie by director Neil Blomkamp is being hailed as "the best movie of the year" I however beg to differ. The story follows 20 years after the arrival of aliens in Johannesburg who were quickly moved to a camp of sorts called District 9, a Government organization operative who was originally given the job of evicting all the "prawns" to a new place, finds himself on the other end of the barrel when he is infected with alien genes. Though this is definitely not the worst movie of the year, it is the most overrated yet, it was alright, but it was just that...alright.

To begin with there were far too many plot holes, I had my sister asking me questions throughout the movie and she never normally talks in films. It was a short film stretched way too far and this stretching has created many, many holes. For spoilers sake I will not discuss them here but one major one is the ship, supposedly it crash landed, on earth and had no fuel, yet somehow is still able to levitate what, how many tonnes for 20 years!!!!

Structurally it was faulty too the film rested on it's exposition for three quarters then the third act only then started to move forward I thought it would get good but then it just turned into generic sci-fi action nonsense corny lines and all. This is not to mention some characterization was awful, the wife of the main character (when he gets infected) says she can't love him anymore, but then she does, but then she doesn't, then she does, it get's confusing. And on top of this throughout the entire film the protagonist is a genuinely unlikeable character (a good performance by the actor though) and the real villains are incredibly 2 dimensional with bad lines to boot.

But the thing that annoyed me most about this movie is how subconcoiusly racist this filmmaking is, for an Apartheid allegory (or so they say) For the native people of darker skin, everything they said In English was subtitled, even though it was crystal clear. But when white people with accents, or Kiwis (as Johannesburg is apparently a city in New Zealand) speak, no subtitles are required.
And then when Native people speak their own language, the subtitling happens to have bad grammar....

But the special effects!! for only 30 million the effects in this film were amazing so props for that.

I went in expecting Hot stuff and got mild chili instead.
5/10 - the special effects were the only thing that really dazzled me.