Jolly Good Show

I won’t keep you long, this won’t be a long review, just a few points.

Thin Red Line tells the story of … well there isn’t much of a story really, not much happens as far as a plot goes it’s more a jumble of fighting.  There is an all-star cast in this film though, Adrien Brody - a practically mute soldier who constantly looks worried and confused, James Caviezel - the main character I think, John Cusak - not one of his usual films, Woody Harrelson - an angry captain who blows his ass off literally, Sean Penn, and other’s including the guy who played Benvolio in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet, who kicks arse in this film, he’s like rambo.  One of the more annoying things about this film is that big stars are just dropped in for like 5 seconds and then they’re off John Travolta appears for about 2 minutes with about as many lines, Thomas Jane who is best known for playing "The Punisher" is in approaching the end for about 5 seconds, literally.  The worst by far though is George Clooney, he is mentioned on the back of the DVD as starring in the film, so throughout, you’re waiting for him to show up, thinking oh that’ll be him he’ll be on in a bit don’t worry, but no he’s on for the sum total of apporximately 30 seconds right at the end, what is the friggin point.

Sorry for having such a rant, and I know there will be hundred’s of grammatical and spelling mistakes in this post, but I had to get these things out.  Visually this film wasn’t bad, the director created a good looking film, and obviously with such a feast of top actors, the acting is superb, near flawless, bar Adrien Brody who was quite frankly pants.  Oh and one last thing, throughout the film intermittent voice-overs come on, which sounds like poetry or general musings on war, I’m sure if the visual film wasn’t so distracting and if the reader hadn’t mumbled this would’ve have been quite insightful but I was bored by them and couldn’t remember anything said so it seemed rather redundant to me.

The latest Indiana Jones film, Ford’s got on a bit, it’s expected he wont be doing much in the film.  Young up and comer Shia LaBeouf co-stars, along with Ray Winstone, how will Henry Jones Jr. look in the 21st century, well it’s not set in the 21st century obviously, it’s 1957, there’s no Nazis, just crazy Russians, which can apparently roam free across America and namely the enigmatic Area 51.

So basically, at some point between the third film and this one, Indiana Jones was doing some sort of government spy work, and has been in the army and has won lots of medals.  A young man (Shia LaBeouf) turns up saying his Mum told him to get Indiana’s help with freeing an old friend and mentor.  They go on a large quest to find the man, and return a crystal skull to it’s rightful place (not a museum) and get out before they die.

So like Die Hard 4.0, the usual conventions of the series have been sort of left out, e.g. Nazi’s are bad and trying to steal magical things for unthinkable power, and Indiana Jones wants those same magical things in a Museum.  Instead Russians are evil and want to steal magical things, and Indiana Jones want’s those same magical things back where they belong in their natural habitat, sort of like he’s admitting he never really gets the important stuff back to a museum and usually ends up leaving them where they are, and away from the baddies.

However, where Indiana Jones 4 differs from Die Hard 4.0 is that it’s good, whereas Die hard was essentially shite and brain poison in my opinion.  I thoroughly enjoyed this latest installment in the Indiana Jones story, and Stephen Spielberg has used the huge progress made in CGI and visual effects, outstandingly.  The film looks great, with some really epic and iconic shots, and the all-star cast does superbly.  The end is a little far-fetched, that is to say even more so than usual with Indy, but is pretty cool.

As has already been mentioned in this blog, I’m a big Shia LaBeouf fan.  I get excited every time I hear he’s gonna be in a film.  I think he is a truly great actor, and has an incredibly bright future.  Look out for his entrance when you see this film, it’s possibly one of the coolest in film history.

A teenage boy loses control after his father dies, and is subsequently put under 3 month house arrest.  As his solitude engulfs him, paranoia sets in and he gets wound up in the mysterious lives of his neighbours.

This film is very heavily under-rated in my opinion, Directorially it can be fairly average, but it also excels at times.  The acting however especially by Shia LaBeouf, is superb (I’m a big fan of him).  I thoroughly enjoyed this film.  The basic idea is kind of a cross between Rear Window and the Burbs, in that It’s funny at the same time as being a thriller, what a combo.   However where Rear Window was centered around an older man with a broken leg this film focusses on a young man with a broken life.  As Shia’s character (Kale) begins his long stint in home prison, his mother cuts off his X-box live account and his iTunes account, a huge blow for any penniless teenager.  At first he just seems bored, and somewhat nostalgic about his father, but as the boredom increases he begins spying on his neighbours.  Including the hot girl next door (Sarah Roemer) and the dark and enigmatic Mr Turner (David Morse).

So to cap all this funny and scary stuff off, the film has a killer soundtrack including the first song by System of a Down to be licensed for a film.  Check out Kings of Leon - Taper Jean Girl and Buckcherry - Next to You.  This is one of those films I can watch again and again, highly reccomended.

Ok so the podcast thing fell through and both Joe and I got to busy with Uni-work to do anything more, so the reviews are back to normal.  Next one is distrubia.

So the reviews are changing.  My flatmate Joe and I are now going to be producing them collaboratively.  The reviews are a lot less serious, they’re more for fun and each review will come with a podcast that is a recording of the discussion that goes into the writing of each review.  They will be available on iTunes.  We’re just in the middle of editing the first podcast it should be ready shortly.  Not sure if anyone’s reading these but this might make it a bit more popular.  The first new edition will be on a classic film, The Matrix.  Hope you enjoy them.

 Peace out.

When I bought this DVD I thought it would just be the film with a few extras in a shiny box.  How wrong I was.  It is a four disc set with more extras than you could shake a stick at the film itself has been extended to three hours in length over two discs, there is an overture before the film and an entr’acte between the first and second acts.  Ridley Scott has created a masterpiece in this film.  It is truly beautiful; much credit must also go to the producers, who picked some amazing places for filming.

In this film a crusader knight and baron in Jerusalem (Liam Neeson) returns home to find his bastard son (Orlando Bloom).  The son returns to Jerusalem with his father, however mishaps occur on the way.  Bloom’s character proves his worth becomes a knight and baron, standing up for all the things a knight should.  The film climaxes in a huge battle in the defence of Jerusalem’s people.

Acting
Orlando Bloom has the lead in this film, he hasn’t really proven himself that much in anything else but in this he truly out-did himself.  His character through a huge range of emotions in this film and I think he did a fair job.  Jeremy Irons did a fantastic job as the gruff, King’s assistant, Tiberias, I think.  Nothing else really stands out from this film; Martin Csokas plays an evil Frenchman pretty well.

Directing
Well I’ve already said what a spectacular job Ridley Scott has done it truly is magnificent.  The scenery, the shots, the visual effects, everything is top notch and you can really see how much care Scott has put into this.  Again I have to give credit to the producers, they picked some truly awe-inspiring locations to shoot the film.

Writing
William Monahan wrote this film and I have no quibbles with him.  The plot is original, and historically accurate (as far as I know).  It draws you in and creates suspense; the dialogue is fantastic in my opinion, and I would like to see him collaborate with Ridley Scott again.

In this film, directed by Tony Goldwyn, Michael (Zach Braff) has a mid-life crisis a long with his best friends (Casey Affleck, Eric Christian Olsen, Michael Weston) and his girlfriends mother (Blythe Danner).

Acting

The first person to identify has to be Braff, his acting in this is superb, as it is in anything I’ve seen him (Garden State, Scrubs).  He portrays a man in a mid-life crisis eloquently.  However I would like to see him doing something more extreme than romantic comedies, and Scrubs, something with a more demanding character and plot to test him.  Next comes Braff’s character’s girlfriend’s parents.  The mother is played by Blythe Danner, who is wonderful acting along side the father played by Tom Wilkinson creating great chemistry as an older couple having marital difficulties.  Last person to point out is Rachel Bilson, who apart from being one of the most gorgeous women in the world has shown a completely different character from that of Summer from The OC, it was good to see some versatility from her.  The rest of the cast support the Leads pretty well so nothing to complain about there

Directing

Tony Goldwyn has done a great job with this film, I don’t recognise his name but he has created a beautiful looking film.  His use of music was the most impressive thing, most notably the final couple of scenes which has "Warning Sign by Coldplay"  it just works magnificently.  There were a few shots made that I got a little confused by but overall a great job.

Writing

This was written by Paul Haggis, the same guy who wrote the highly acclaimed Crash, and you can see his style really come through.  Some of the dialogue mainly from Kenny is slightly dodgy and cliche but he’s a very minor character so the movie doesn’t suffer much from it.

Overall I thought this was really good, not a great film but nothing to complain about.