Movies – I Love ‘em

Hi all

I’m fortunate enough to get to see all sorts of films, big and small – sometimes before they’re released, sometimes not (if they’re released at all) – so I thought I’d put my thoughts on some of the smaller independent films into the wider world if I liked them. And occasionally I’ll pop in the odd big movie too.

If I don’t like a film, then I’m probably not going to mention it at all.

Unless I’m really annoyed.

vWv124

PS. I’m never going to go into plot details on any film, so you don’t have to worry about spoilers.

Filed under: film, movies , director, independent film, movie, reviews

Never Let Me Go (2010) dir: Mark Romanek

Haven’t had much of a chance to see many movies recently, and this definitley wasn’t on my list, so it hadn’t registered with me, especially as it looked like a dull kitchen sink drama from Britain’s Film Four with Kiera Knightley.

Then I heard it was a genre film.

OK. That piqued my interest.

And it was written by Danny Boyle scribe Alex Garland.

Uh oh. A fine writer who showed his lack of sci-fi film knowledge and totally wrecked Sunshine.

The story is set in an alternative Britain and centres on the relationship of three friends over 20 years, starting at school. The children have no parents and are told that they are special. Their health is monitored and they are encouraged to paint and to learn a little about the wider world, though they are conditioned to never want to leave their surroundings and not to question what is happening to them and the purpose of their short lives.

At the heart is a love story, and the three grown up children are played by Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and the fantastic Andrew Garfield, who I’ve been a huge fan of since ‘Boy A’ – which you must check out if you can find it – he’s going to make a superb Peter Parker/Spiderman. The sci-fi trappings of the film are very low key but as the story progressed there was a real sense of loss and pain, which I was quite surprised by. And even though I had trouble with the characters simple acceptance of what they were to become, it kind of made the whole thing even more poigniant.

Incredibly sad but brave as well.

Filed under: drama, film, sci-fi , Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Keira Knightley

The Last Exorcism (2010) dir: Daniel Stamm

No new posts for a while – just caught up in the financing of my own movie – so haven’t had a chance to see much. Anyway, films I’ve seen which I thought were great were ‘Toy Story 3′, ‘Inception’, ‘The Secrets in Their Eyes’, not so good ‘Predators’.

‘The Last Exorcism’ is a documentary style film that follows preacher Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian), a man whose faith in God is waning, a man who basically just preaches the word of God as a job to pay the bills and feed his family. In one neat scene he demonstrates to the documentary film crew following him that he can get his parishioners to say anything in a prayer and does so by throwing in a cooking recipe in between the hallelujahs. He also used to perform fake exorcisms and, when he hears that a child has been killed in a botched exorcism by some priests, he decides that he will expose their fraudulent nature and perhaps help those troubled families involved. So, with the film crew in tow, he sets off to Louisiana to help a pious farmer desperate to exorcise his daughter Nell (Ashley Bell). She sleepwalks, she has conversations in different voices with herself and she disembowels the farm animals.

Everything we see in the film is done as if it’s a real documentary, so the story is told via a single camera POV and, despite my initial reservations, it worked really well. At its core there is a great performance from Ashley Bell who is totally convincing as either a seriously troubled teenager with an abusive father making the whole thing up, or someone really possessed. I liked that it wasn’t particularly gory, but it was creepy, and that it more or less kept the documentary style consistent all the way through – so you never see the camera man or sound man, but you do hear them as they interact with the subjects of their documentary. Just as I thought the whole ending had totally copped out it still sprang a couple of surprises. And it made me jump.

Well put together, well acted and well told.

Filed under: documentary, film, horror, movies , Ashley Bell, Eli Roth, Patrtick Fabian

Kick-Ass (2010) dir: Matthew Vaughn

So busy trying to get my own film up and running that it’s taken me over a week to write this up. And yes it’s not really a small movie as it cost $30m, but it’s an indie movie made to look and compete with Hollywood fair.

Arron Johnson is a high school kid who loves comic books. He poses this question. Why aren’t there any real super heroes? So he buys a wet suit and mask and decides to fight crime as ‘Kick-Ass’. And immediately finds out why there aren’t real crime fighting super heroes. However, he becomes a youtube sensation and comes to the attention of Father and Daughter crime fighting team ‘Big Daddy’ (aka Damon Macready aka Nic Cage) and ‘Hitgirl’ (aka Mindy Macready aka Chloë Grace Moretz). ‘Nuff said.

It’s these last two characters and their relationship that really elevates an already good movie to greatness. This is also easily Nic Cage’s best film in ages – it’s almost like his character here is an older, slightly more domesticated ‘Sailor Ripley ‘ (his character in Wild at Heart) – you can imagine ‘Hit Girl’ being his offspring. And Chloë Grace Moretz, a seasoned actress already at 13, is, to put it bluntly, amazing.

Sure it is going to upset some members of the audience, what with a little girl killing and maiming the bad guys as expletives roll off her tongue. But this is a comic book movie, made by comic book fans, and in conjunction with, the great comic book writer Mark Millar. Often laugh out loud and jaw dropping. The script by Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn just zings with energy and although there is plenty of action it’s often the small scenes that are so memorable. My favourite is a quiet little interlude where dad Damon and his little girl Mindy are sitting in a diner eating ice cream sodas together, and she’s telling him what she wants for her birthday. And she asking for (I think!) a puppy dog and all sorts of girly fluffy toys – all the while her dad’s face is drooping with disappointment and sadness. Then Mindy looks into her dad’s eyes and goes. “I’m just fucking with you Daddy!” and then describes the lethal weaponry that she’d really like and his face lights up with pride and happiness!

Matthew Vaughn directs with utter control as the film could have easily have been terrible. His best work yet.

I loved it and can’t wait to see it again. Even my wife who pretty much hates comic book related films (she was bored by The Dark Knight for goodness sake and refused to come to Watchmen) was converted and has stated that she would be happy to accompany me! All is well in my household.

Filed under: action, comic book, film, martial arts , Arron Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Jane Goldman, Mark Millar, Matthew Vaughn, Nic Cage

Alice in Wonderland 3D (2010) dir: Tim Burton

First of all I’m a huge Tim Burton fan.

But every now and again he screws up (remember Planet of the Apes? ‘Nuff said).

Sometimes I have to pay to see a movie, sometimes I don’t. My wife really wanted to see this at the Odeon Leicester Square (in London). It was the most expensive cinema ticket I have ever bought (£17.50 each or about $26 – and I bought the cheapest priced ticket – ok so I can be tight). And guess what? I want my money back!

It was not only dull and lifeless but it committed the ultimate movie crime. IT WAS BORING!!!!!!!

Pleasant eye candy for about 20 minutes. It had some great character design and it had a cool voice cast but you know, lets have a decent plot and some witty dialogue. All the best bits are in the trailer.

It was so disappointing… I don’t really want to say anything more.

Filed under: fantasy, film , Johnny Depp, Tim Burton