First Shot Jitters

Sorry for any delay, apparently there's a festive season on that takes up people's time.

Anyway, we had our first day of shooting for CAROLS last Sunday and it's safe to say I'm pumped for the remainder of the shoot over January and February.

Little personal admission, the first 30 seconds of on set activity and I'm pretty sure I had no idea what to do. We were going to start running the actors through their movements and as usual when you're director, you're asked 5 million questions one after the other and are expected to know all the answers there and then. I found myself muttering and mumbling and needlessly looking at my script for the first slew of QandA but thankfully my DOP had to go and sort something camera related out and I took a moment to myself where I was like 'What is wrong with you? this is what you want to do for the rest of your life, you're on a location with 15 people looking to you, this is a job you love. So snap out of it!' I took a breath and from then on I worked in my usual form.

I suppose it was a case of first shot jitters and we were attempting a tracking shot too, probably not the smartest thing for the first shoot day as the crew all need to get used to each other too but we got there and I am very happy with the print take (take 12 if you were wondering... yeah I do still have a lot to learn).

#005 Pitch Perfect

Sometimes you're just in need of a film that makes you laugh and forget about the phenomenally craptastic week you've just had and PITCH PERFECT is... well... perfect for just that situation.

The story follows Beca (Anna Kendrick), a young girl with family issues who doesn't want to be at college, but owing to pressures of her father she joins one of several a capella groups on campus filled with all sorts of quirky characters and they compete in the a capella competition.

This sounds all very simple and paint by numbers, and to an extent, it is. But it's fun. Really fun, especially Rebel Wilson, whose one liners sent me in stitches and most of the people in the theatre with me.

In fact, this whole film is filled with some brilliant one-liners all over the place including some great turns from Elizabeth Banks, Brittany Snow and Anna Camp.  As  for uncanny casting, Skylar Astin (from the underrated Hamlet 2) plays the love interest for Beca and he has a ludicrously strong resemblance to Dane Cook.  The casting for this whole film was pretty spot on, especially the supporting roles.

Pitch perfect is directed by Jason Moore who directed the Broadway production of Avenue Q, so this guy knows comedy and doesn't let down on the directing side. He gives us some great sequences including a wonderful 'auditions' montage and some wonderful twists on some typical movie scenes, proving he has some solid cinematic chops.

It pays to mention the music here which is, like the rest of the film, fun. Of course it's filled with the top 10 hits of the last decade, but who cares? The singing was pretty good, barring some occasional auto-tuning and some inexplicable bass harmonies in a supposed all-female group, but I'm nit picking now.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself and came out smiling, and sometimes, that's all you really need.
8.5/10

#004 SKYFALL

A fair amount has been said on the subject of this film already, especially when referring to it's context within the canon of Bond, so I will mainly look at this from the point of view of looking at it as a Movie.

Directed by Sam Mendes of AMERICAN BEAUTY fame (my favorite film of all time), SKYFALL is an exceedingly superb action film. Opening of a wonderful and constantly escalating action sequence that flows from setpiece to setpiece in what feels like utter ease and landing us smack bang in the middle of the world James Bond inhabits. Cut to a brilliant title sequence with a great Adele number underneath.

The visuals on this film are amazing, and with Roger Deakins behind the camera, what did you expect?  Interestingly enough, the Arri Alexa was used on this picture and while images aren't always as flawless as those from ANONYMOUS, also shot on the Alexa (though not the studio model) the camera is fast proving itself to be the greatest digital camera to date.

The story, even for non-Bond fans, is exciting and enthralling from the get go covering a plot by a mastermind hacker to take down MI6 and it's leader. All actors here handle their characters perfectly.  Judy Dench is especially given a great plot in which she shines and damn near steals the film from Craig... nearly.

This film is exactly what you want in an action picture, explosions, chases, jokes and a damn good story. I can't really say much more other than it's worth the hype and deserves the some $871 million dollars at the box office as of this writing.

Brilliant, fun and a damn great action film - 10/10

#003 The Master

I delayed reviewing this one for a few days since I watched it in the hopes I would have somehow gotten my head around it... I haven't.

I've been a MASSIVE fan of Paul Thomas Anderson's work since I saw magnolia and it absolutely floored me as a film. When I heard about this one and that it centred around a cult and Amy Adams (my favourite actress of ALL time) was going to be in it, I couldn't wait.

However, I cannot help but feel that the film I wanted, wasn't what this film was and what it was, wasn't something I was particularly after...

The story... or what one can gleam from the films very deliberate slow pacing, is about a young-ish war veteran who find himself caught up in a cult being led by a gentleman known to his followers as "Master" played quite masterfully by Philip Seymour Hoffman. The protagonist is played by Joaquin Phoenix and he has some wonderful moments... that is when you get to see them at least.

The thing is that the movie spends an awful amount of time pondering itself and Freddie (that's Phoenix) spends a lot of time pondering.... stuff... I would assume.  There are some truly brilliant scenes, one in particular between Hoffman and Phoenix early on, and a particularly wonderful scene chewing moment from Hoffman again when the Master is confronted by a skeptic.

These scenes are from the movie I wanted to see, I am perpetually fascinated by cult psychology and the like, having had some personal involvement early on in my childhood with one.  But these scene are too few and far between for me to get a firm grasp on them when they do come along if at all.

The cinematography is brilliant, and Anderson uses plenty of long takes and developing shots that are too often forgotten in the world of directors these days. Interestingly enough, a lot of the movie is shot in ludicrously shallow focus, but it is never uncomfortable which is nice for a change and this odd way of shooting is helped along by a wonderful, if unnerving, score by Johnny Greenwood.

I still don't think I'll ever really get this film, but not in a good way as I do with Fellini's 8 and a half it shall probably remain an enigma to me and I'm not really fussed: the way for another cult-based movie is still clear for, hopefully me, to one day probe.

6/10 - Unnerving, well performed, yet not quite there...

#002 The Sessions

The Sessions. A wonderful film that's generating a lot of awards buzz at the moment.

It follows the story of Mark O'Brien who, stricken with polio as a boy, has no control over almost all of the muscles in his body, requiring him to live most of his life in an iron lung and at the age of 38, decides that he doesn't want to die a virgin and opts to employ a sex surrogate.

Mark is played by John Hawkes who gave a brilliant performance in the well-accoladed Winter's Bone. And here he give a very nuanced performance, made especially difficult by being restricted in only moving his head but it never becomes an act of self pity and that what I loved about this film. It never made his situation a pitiful thing, only a different one.

Helen Hunt plays the sex therapist Cheryl and give a very.... very revealing performance, but again this movie exceeds expectations in that the sex scenes in this film are not shot romantically at all, they are merely another scene and this is where I give props to director Ben Lewin who shoots most of the film with the camera stuck on a tripod which fully places the audience in perspective of Mark's situation.
There is also a Priest character, played by William H. Macy who provides a lot of the film's unexpected comedic moments that elevate it beyond typical dramas.

This is a very good movie, but by no means my favourite of the year, the ending kind of fizzles but overall I had a very good experience... or session.... (I know that was awful but I had to do it... when I bought my ticket I said "Can i have one to the 2:30 session of The Sessions and then laughed at my own joke.... yeah... I'm that guy)

Solid film with a wonderful (and potential Oscar-worthy) Performance from John Hawkes
8/10

*Sidenote: So evidently this won't be a movie-a-day thing as making your own movie eats your time like Mr. Lecter eats census takers. But I shall try my best to review as often as possible.

No review today either...

Dance rehearsals (my film is a musical) have buggered me out... and I have another whole day of it tomorrow so I need sleep... with that said, goodnight. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Corporate Work

So yet another delay, TRAINSPOTTING is, after all a 2 hour movie and I have rehearsals at 8am tomorrow, I will try to have it up tomorrow night and possibly another film if I can keep my eyes open long enough to watch two. In which case it will be the 2002 film SPUN.

So here's another little nugget with regards to Corporate video work, that is: non-narrative videography. I include weddings, fitness videos, training videos... basically anything that fits in that category, I call Corporate video.

I myself have had a few Corporate gigs and from my experience, the best advice I can give is this:

DO WHAT THE EMPLOYER WANTS.

Yes, that's right, forsake all your "artistic integrity" and, whatever they want, you give it to them. You think it would be more pleasing to the eye to dolly in but they want it handheld? Do it hand held.

Yes 9 times out of 10 your ideas are better but that's not the point of Corporate videos... you have your own work for that kind of experimentation and creative license

At the end of the day, they are the ones paying you. There are hundreds of people out there who want that money and will do what they are asked to do so it's just better to use that handheld shot, that star wipe or that cheesy Muzak, if they are happy, they keep paying you and you can take that money and make your films with it. Simple.

... that seemed like an angry post (not my intention at all) but I guess I've had too many conversations with other people where this seems to be the farthest thing from common sense.... in fact that's a wonderful oxymoron isn't it?.... Common Sense...

#001 Blurred

So first on my movie pile is the 2002 Australian film BLURRED.
It was suggested to me by a friend who recommended it when I was explaining a teen party-esque idea I had and to be honest, I wanted to like this movie more than I actually did.
For anyone that has heard me talk about movies, it will become very quickly apparent that I have a love of multi-plot films, that is films with multiple protagonists (the official term is "Hyperlink Cinema" but that's far too wanktastic for me to ever use that in public). Even the ones that aren't supposed to carry a lot of artistic merit such as VALENTINE'S DAY, I find myself, more often than not, enjoying them in some small way.

But with Blurred, it's just that much more difficult.

Blurred follows a dozen or so characters all on their way to schoolies week on the Gold Coast in sunny Queensland... yeah that's pretty much it.

I must give props to some of the actors here who manage, in some small way, to handle the incredibly on-the-nose dialogue that feels like first, maybe second, draft material rather than something that's been properly re-written. I mean, for example, the first 30 minutes are coated in every piece of Australian slang. Ever. Other actors in this ensemble piece don't fare so well such as the guy on the train who dumps his girlfriend and goes on a high with a random goth character for the entirety of the film.

That's another thing, most of these characters are unfathomably stereotypical to the point where it feels forced and yet those stereotypes aren't taken anywhere new or given a new spin or development throughout the film that would make them interesting. The characters all just kind of sit there and shit happens. There is, to my great dismay, a totally unnecessary love story that seems to come out of nowhere as two of the characters suddenly "Realise we like each other" in order to create conflict, these kinds of developments scream that the writer is taking a hand and only adds to the parts that feel forced.

Don't get me wrong, there were some good moments to this film: there's one particular sequence at a petrol station where several of the stories collide (my favourite kinds of moments in multi-plot films) that was quite enjoyable to watch and the ending wrapped it up nice enough that it didn't feel like my time was completely wasted but at the end of the day, while it wasn't a terrible movie, it wasn't a very good one either.

4.5/10 for me on this one.

P.S. The one amusing thing is how serendipitously creepy Matthew Newton's role is when considering all the things he did later on in life.... but perhaps that's not a particularly good thing...


Next on the pile is TRAINSPOTTING.

Learning From the Pros

Well I am forced to delay the movie review one more day owing to some production-based dilemmas that needed to be solved and my television being occupied, to my utter disgust, with sex and the city.

But I thought I might give away a trade secret... where I'm learning a lot of the filmmaking stuff I use. I learn it from the people I admire. While part of that is ALWAYS inclusive of watching their films, I am actually referring to a distinct advantage in our digital world of websites like youtube where the artists and craftspeople you admire are only a click away.

I can't tell you how many interviews I've since ripped from youtube and kept on hard drives, well over a few hundred gigabytes. From Spielberg to Tarantino, there's plenty of material with some really interesting and useful knowledge imparted to those who go searching.

This is especially evident with every Oscar season when all the "great" directors (except Terrence Malick) will come out to talk a bit about their work and craft.  I stumbled upon this goldmine of information the net has to offer during the 2009/2010 Oscar campaign when nominees included AVATAR, INGLORIOUS BASTERDS and THE HURT LOCKER, and I was merely searching for Tarantino-related videos to satisfy my hunger for every word that man speaks and I came across the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) Directors on directing panel... Basically they put all the talked about directors of the season at a table with each other and have them talk and discuss films for over an hour.
This particular panel had Quentin Tarantino, Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Pete Doctor and Todd Philips... it's awe inspiring to say the least.




My only caveat for this video treasure trove is to avoid interviews (aside from some brilliant Hitchcock clips floating about by the AFI) that are shorter than 5 Minutes, usually most of that is a moronic interviewer asking stupid questions ("if you could have any superpower...", when it's a superhero film for a painful example) that add nothing to the conversation, and in my personal experience, the best ones are the interviews and panels that last long enough for the filmmakers to say something truly valuable. So my suggestion is to first search videos longer than 20 min as youtube allows in their advanced search to weed out the less insightful clips.

Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a short review and the beginning of my "Movie-a-day" feature. I can say, however, that the first on the pile is an Australian film called BLURRED.

Well Look... I'm Back... Again

After nearly 2 Years, in which many a thing has happened, I have decided to return to blogging in the hope that I may eventually get an actual reader or two.

Superlong story short: I am in pre-production on my first Feature film as Director, which is where most of my time has, rather enjoyably, gone.

I was prompted by a friend of mine who decided to go through a massive pile of his unwatched films to do the same and so, I shall be attempting a "Movie-a-Day" kind of thing that shall include all kinds of films whether Home Entertainment, Cinema or otherwise.

I will endeavour  also, to include more blog posts about all things filmmaking that I am picking up along the way of making my film but production-specific updates will be left to the websites set up for that particular production.

More information on my film can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carols-An-Arcane-Century-Production/204352042910592

And the youtube that shall soon be filled with Behind the scenes videos is: http://www.youtube.com/user/ArcaneCentury

And fingers crossed I can finally keep this sort of thing going.

Black Swan: ehjkfkledsrlif

Wow. Simply wow. This newest offering from The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky is a sheer dazzling display of filmmaking. Although I saw it in a cinema with an audience that chose to laugh at inappropriate moments in order to alleviate their uncomfortable feelings that the movie drew out in them.

Black Swan is the story a ballerina who is given the lead in Swan Lake by her boundary pushing director. A rivalry soon ensues when new ballerina in the school played by Mila Kunis enters and creates paranoia in Portman's character. This paranoia soon manifests in grotesque visions and hallucinations involving Swan based imagery and ultimately begins to seep into her reality as she metamorphoses form the innocent White Swan into the seductive and destructive Black Swan.

Aronofsky's direction is top-notch: choosing to shoot more than half the movie in claustrophobic close shots, Aronofsky borrows from Polanski's Repulsion to create a severely agonizing look into the psychotic mind of Nina the Ballerina. Aronofsky is not afraid to go places, using the close-ups on grotesque visions of skin ripping and face stabbing drawing gasps from the audience. It would not be too bold to say that this is his masterpiece.

Portman's performance is nothing but an across the board unanimous verdict of the best of the year. She successfully plays both her doppleganger and herself in such a way that you a truly drawn into the madness that is Nina and cannot help but be fascinated with her from the very first frame, through to the end.

The supporting cast is also great: Mila Kunis as the very straight-played rival ballerina who's "not faking it"; Vincent Cassel as the temperamental Ballet director; Barbara Hershey as the neurotic stage mum and a host of others. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique also give us a nice mix of film and digital with sweeping and sometimes jumpy camera which works especially well during the performance scenes.

Black Swan is nothing short of a masterpiece but I find it very difficult to review this movie. I don't think I've quite gotten my head around it and will probably see it again in the near future, but for now it's a film that has me perpetually fascinated.

A taught, dark, sexy and virtuoso achievement. - 10/10

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.

Inglorious Basterds - Gloriously Inglorious!

What a refreshing movie, something different amidst alot of the same thing. Tarantino's 10-year-in-the-working film comes to theatres to give audiences a taste of what the war should have been like.

Quentin Tarantino's darkly comical war movie following deathproof tells the stories of small groups of people that, during the events of WW2, aim to end the ongoing war. These include the Basterds, a group of Nazi killing solders, Shoshanna Dreyfus a Jewish escapee who now lives under the guise of a french Cinema owner, and Bridget von Hammersmark a German actress batting for the other side.

To begin with, let it be noted that out of all Tarantino's films, Inglorious Basterds is technically his most tame, there are no really long tracking shots, obscure camera movements or edits, so in fact, this may be Quentin's most original.

The film's dialogue did however tend to drag on a bit even though the monologues were cut short, but nonetheless the film still moved at a reasonable pace with a slight lag in the second quarter.

Acting-wise, there are some superb performances from Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa, Melanie Laurent as Shoshanna and Diane Kruger as Hammersmark, especially from Laurent, I personally felt that her story was the most endearing, her story opens the film and gives it it's "Cinematic" ending.

*edit, on a second viewing of this film explodes in cinema exuberance and the whole film works as a whole.

Hilarious, dramatic, and refreshing storytelling from a master of his art - 10/10

AVATAR is here!!!!!

Nerds unite and cream your pants the trailer for AVATAR, by Filmmaker James Cameron (Titanic) is here!!!!

From the trailer alone, I would say it lives up to all expectations and more and should definitely be a contender for Best Picture.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/avatar/index.html