My blog: Some thoughts on films

Last night I finally got to see Black Swan. I say finally like it’s been out ages but here in the UK it only came out on Friday. But the build up to this film has been phoenominal. Over the past few weeks I’ve heard rather mixed reviews, again I must stress I never properly read these reviews I just like to get a general feel for how certain films are doing. So going in I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would it be too much? Would it live up to the hype? etc etc.

Well it did live up to the hype I really, really enjoyed it. And I think I enjoyed it a slightly different way to other recent excellent films that are all gathering awards this season (127 Hours, The Kings Speech). Its been a few hours since I’ve seen it and it has lingered with me THE ENTIRE TIME. I got home and was sat in the study and it was relatively dark…and I heard noises man and it suddenly dawned on me how much the film freaked me out…”What was that noise…?” “Wait…did I make that noise??”. Crazy stuff.

Natalie Portman is an actress that I don’t have much of an opinion on…lot’s of

people love her performances but I have to say when she’s in a film I don’t much notice it. I love V For Vendetta and Garden State but this was sort of despite her presence. However Black Swan has opened my eyes, that performance was astounding. It was really good to see her do something completely different, with many layers. And what she put her body through with the weight loss and dancing is real dedication that I think should get recognised (well it is really isn’t it, I’m pretty sure the Oscar is a cinch for her really.)

Other quick things I loved about the film was the constant use of mirrors throughout the film. Not just in the ballet studios but in most scenes there are mirrors, shiny surfaces that maintain this running theme of duality and two faces, two sides.

The music and dancing were sublime, composer Clint Mansell based the score on Tchaikovsky’s ballet  with major changes (like the ballet in the film). Also I was amazed at how elegant these A list actors were in their roles as ballet dancers. Natalie Portman especially, she worked for a year training for 5 hours a day and it paid off, it seemed very natural for her.

Anyway- Quick review in my lunch time break is done. I loved this film and it has actually given me nightmares definitely worth seeing at the theatres 4/5. 

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead

I pretty much waited all last year for the release of this random little film. I kept hearing about theatrical release dates, and then it was DVD release dates and so I deduced the time had passed for me to see this at the cinema, or indeed it never reached my fine shores. 

In all honesty, my intrigue in this film revolved around the actor who appears in it, Kris Lemche. You may know him from such awesome films as Ginger Snaps, My Little Eye or maybe Final Destination 3 (my personal favourite in the series). But reading the description of the film I instantly wanted to see it. Well I had a wait but I got there a few months ago.

The films centres on Julian Marsh (Jake Hoffman) who is an out of work director,
too busy romancing the ladies to care about his life. So his father shows him a leaflet for a random production of Hamlet and he gets the job as director. But as you may have guessed, it’s no ordinary play and he begins to unearth the real secret that connects Shakespeare, the Holy Grail and vampires.

Yes, bloody vampires again. They’re still pretty “in”.

I enjoyed it. The story is random and I do love my Hamlet, the acting although not superb was well upheld by Lemche (who plays Julian’s best friend who takes a lead role in the play within the film) and I’m not just saying that because I’m biased by his beautiful face. The script is Jordan Galland’s first and it is also his first directorial début, the dialogue is a little bit flimsy and the story does seem to just go off at all angles but I pretty much enjoyed the ride and one sure fire way for me liking a film is quotability. Which this film has lots of. I was watching it and my Dad walked in right when Lemche’s character shouts “FUCK NUTS”, my Dad had a random laughing fit there and then. 

“Everyone thinks he’s dead he can’t be in the play…and we’ve already had all  those posters made…”

“Rosenbros and Guildendude!”

Was I expecting a grand masterpiece? Of course not. Did I get one? Hell no. But it was good weird shit and that’s the best kinda…shit…

So that’s my random film recommendation of the week. Now go away, find it and watch it.

127 Hours.

Directed by Danny Boyle

Starring James Franco

Quick thoughts:

I thought it was going to be good, the reviews were stating as much (not that I take too much note of that, just a general feeling) but I wasn’t sure how the story could sustain a full feature film, however the film just blew me away. From the unique camera angles, to the intense atmosphere created by the superb James Franco and a mind blowing soundtrack I could not take my eyes off the screen. Oh except for those pretty gruesome scenes…my eyes did drift away in anxiety then.

Franco for the Oscar guys. That performance was mind blowing the guy is a genius. 

Oh one funny thing that happened in the cinema last night…I was sat by a woman who, in a scene where Aron drinks dirty water in the dessert retorted “Oh, that’s disgusting”…I’m sorry what?? THAT’S disgusting?? Not the bit where he has to remove his own arm?? The Bit where he drinks dirty water for SURVIVAL?? THAT”S DISGUSTING?? Jesus! Some people.

Go see it…NOW!

This week I have become completely obsessed with the film Rubin and Ed. I’m a pretty big Crispin Glover fan, I always enjoy a film more when he surprisingly pops up in it (Hot Tub Time Machine, Alice In Wonderland), and while rifling through the amazing directory of Tumblr I stumbled (tumbled?) upon the trailer for this film and instantly knew everything I had planned for that evening had to stop INSTANTLY as I hunted down a way to find and watch this film. 

RUBIN AND ED!

The film follows two characters, Rubin (Glover) a weird, recluse who constantly annoys his mother by spending his days indoors listening to his classical music. She loses it with him and orders him to go out and find a friend. Then there’s Ed (Howard Hesseman)  who is part of a pyramid scheme who only needs to bring one person to the convention but can’t get anyone interested. The two hopeless souls meet with the understanding they can sort out these two little problems. Rubin will go to the convention and Ed will pop round to his house so that he can meet Rubin’s mother. However while at the house Ed discovers Rubin’s dead cat in the freezer and it all goes a bit mental from there. They’re soon lost in the desert trying to find the best place to bury the cat.

Just. Amazing. 

The best thing about this film is the fantastic one liners. It’s honestly a film I could quote all the time and I’ve only seen it once!

“It’s going to get weird now isn’t it?”

It was released in 1992 and is not available on DVD unless you contact the film director Trent Harris on his web page which I need to do as I need to own this film. 

All these indie, quirky films that are bizzare for the sake of being bizzare should take a leaf out of “Rubin and Ed“‘s book. It’s fun, silly, random and pretty touching too. I guess it has a sort of cult status to it. I bloody love it anyhow check out the trailer here:

Very sad news to hear today about the death of Pete Postlethwaite. It was always nice to see him pop up in films, he had many great performances. Personally I loved The Usual Suspects, Jurassic Park The Lost World (yes!), Brassed Off and even Soloman Kane which I saw last year and even though that film wasn’t amazing, his appearance brightened up a rather dark film. And of course let’s not forget Romeo and Juliet. 

Rest in peace.

The inevitable blog post about the upcoming films that sound good/interesting/worthy of a watch this year.

First up is Black Swan

Not out in the UK until 27th Jan but already I hope this film is as awesome as all the reviews say it is as I fell in love with the Art Deco style posters and would love to have one framed. If the film doesn’t meet up to these expectations I will be devastated! 

For anyone unaware of this film, it’s a Darren Aronofsky film so s’gonna be a bit weird/mental/heavy etc The story revolved around a ballet dancer played by Natalie Portman dealing with the competition of a new rival (Mila Kunis) however she slowly starts to lose her mind.

Sucker Punch (Dir- Zack Snyder)

I put off watching this trailer for a while because all I heard were guys saying “Huhuhuh watch this trailer of fit birds huhuhuhuh” real mature guys. But it’s actually looking awesome and hey, look at all the fit birds:

Released April 1st.

Two films that I was quite excited about until I saw the trailer for each is The Green Hornet and The Green Lantern. Both films have fantastic lead characters (Seth Rogen and Ryan Reynolds) but the look of each film doesn’t inspire me, especially Green Lantern. Also because Green Lantern features Blake Lively and even though I do love Gossip Girl, her monotone voice and inability to make any real facial expressions pisses me off to high heaven. How I’ll cope with her in a feature film I do not know.

One film I don’t know too much about is The Bridesmaids. The concept of the film is a little too much like the god awful Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson romcom shit storm Bride Wars- the film centres on two woman competing to plan their friends wedding but there are a couple reasons why I think it’ll be good. First off it’s being directed by Paul Feig the great man along with Apatow who gave us Freaks and Geeks and wrote the awesome Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence (read it if you haven’t already).  

The next reason is that Kristen Wiig wrote it. She’s pretty much the funniest woman in films at the moment, lord knows she’s the only reason MacGruber was watchable. Except for those two funny sex scenes which I still laugh at now. (tee hee) But yeah she knows funny so this could be a good comedy this year. Release date is currently scheduled for June 24th. No trailer as yet.

SCREAM 4!!!

Call me naive but I think Scream 4 is going to be good. You know how things come round in circles? Scream was brilliant, Scream 2 was pretty good, Scream 3 was pretty bad…well an ok comedy, well I think Scream 4 is going to bring it right back round to where it should be. With Kevin Williamson back in writing the script and Wes Craven directing these two know how to cature the horror and poke fun at themselves. The film is set for release on April 15th.

Two more comic films coming out this year are Thor and Captain America. In previous posts I’ve gone in to why I’m excited about both, I think the posters for each are excellent and the Thor Trailer looks damn hot:

And let’s not forget the influx of sequels, prequels that will hit our screens. Breaking Dawn Part 1 will be here at the end of the year, let’s hope they rewrote the whole gash book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (as the books got shitter the films got better) 5nal Destination, ergh it just sounds bad doesn’t it? I’m still waiting for them to link all the films together but that’ll never happen. 

That’s all for now I’m sure there will be more I think of. For now let’s just look at Captain America for a minute.