Slumdog Millionaire

I wasn't sure if this was the kind of film that I'd enjoy, but everyone else wanted to go and so I went along.  Glad I did.

The plot of Slumdog Millionaire sounds a bit trivial. A poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks gets a shot at the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". However, there is a lot more to it than that.  With every question answered there comes another step on the backstory that builds to a very satisfactory climax.

The film is beautifully shot and captures a lot of gritty detail about life in India, but it also shows how the human spirit can triumph in just about any circumstance. The actors are particularly impressive, particularly the child cast who are brilliant. Some bits are hard to watch, but in the end I think you will find the film worth the effort.

the Day the Earth Stood Still

We had a great office lunch today. Good food, good company, and I also got a set of measuring spoons in my cracker. Excellent.

Then, in the evening we went out to see "The Day the Earth Stood Still". This is a remake of a classic Sci-Fi film from way back, a tale of an enigmatic alien, his giant robot and shiny spherical spaceship on a mission to destroy all human life. Oh, and a mother with issues with her stepson.

Keanu Reeves didn't have much of a challenge playing the man from outer space. The biggest surprise to me was that nobody referred to him as "Mr. Anderson" at any point in the movie.  

The plot was pretty hackneyed, but resolved neatly enough at the end. One rather striking thing was the sheer number of product placements for a film where, at the climax, every machine in the world stops working. There was one bit where the heroine picked up her LG mobile phone just before checking her Citizen watch. The camera lingered just long enough for the names of these consumer durables to register, completely ignoring the fact that she didn't make a call, and at the end of the world perhaps the last thing that you really want to know is exactly what time it is. 

As a bit of escapism with full on special effects it does the trick, but don't go expecting anything else.

Bond Fire Night

Went out to see "Quantum of Solace", the new Bond film.  Didn't really fancy watching anything outdoors, what with the truly horrible weather. So it was off to Vue in the middle of Hull for fireworks of the indoor kind.

We drove through what seemed to be a "Festival of Bad Driving" to get to the theatre, what with death wish cyclists, deranged lane changers and someone who seemed to want to race me round the car park, our nerves were pretty shredded before the film started....

I wasn't sure what to expect. Some of the critics have been a bit "ho hum" about this one, but I think is because the novelty of a new Bond is starting to wear off as Daniel Craig beds into the part. They may have a point about the plot, which seems to have reverted back to standard Bond faire, with sinister world domination types coming back to the fore.

Having said that, the whole thing was done with conviction and style and everybody played their role very well. It was definitely a bit bleak though, if you are looking for smug type endings with Bond and babe under a fur rug somewhere in the sun you are going to be disappointed. But if you are looking for another good action thriller, you won't be.

Get Smart

I never really saw much of the original "Get Smart" TV show. Made in the sixties, it was a moderately successful spoof of all the spy shows that were popular at the time.

Since Hollywood these days seems to be based on strip mining the past for movie ideas it was only a matter of time before they got around to making a film. Get Smart the movie is actually quite good. The original Maxwell Smart  character was a bit of an idiot. Steve Carel stars as the new one and does a good job of portraying him as more of a nerd than a buffoon, as he and Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway) take on the forces of Kaos. Some of the comedy is a bit broad, and the script creaks a bit under the weight of the big budget that seem to have been thrown at it. But there are laughs to be had and I enjoyed it a lot more than the reviews say I should have.

One thing that did irritate though was the way that the projectionist at CineWorld neglected to open up the gate on the projector, so that rather than seeing the film in proper widescreen we just got the same dimensions as we can get on the telly at home. They did this last week when we saw Hellboy as well.

I'm not sure if this is a new policy, with films being made to fit DVDs rather than cinemas, but you do feel a bit cheated. The actual print itself was pretty horrid too, with poor definition and muddy colours. I think from now on we will go to Vue in town, where they have an all digial setup which is far superior in quality.

Hellboy II - The Golden Army

Went to see the new Hellboy movie tonight. I'm running at one movie a week at the moment. I can't see a problem with that.

Most enjoyable film. Where else can you get ancient cursers, bone eating fairies, myths, magic and Barry Manilow. 

I kid you not. Whereas Batman upped the darkness, X-Files upped the angst and the Mummy just did everything it did before, only not quite as well, the new Hellboy film goes for comedy. And it mostly works. The good news is that everything else is in place too. Scary monsters, fairly convincing baddies, great action sequences and a daft story line that resolved itself quite well but leaves plenty of scope for another sequel.

We are not looking at a movie event here folks, although there are some genuinely surprising touches, including the aforementioned singer. The director has obviously watched a fair few Harry Potter movies, along with the Cantina sequence in the first Star Wars, but the film is all the better for that.

Not a bad way to spend an evening.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

If my years on this planet have taught me one thing, it is that the secret to true happiness is properly managing your expectations. I had high expectations of the new Batman movie, and that paid off. I had somewhat lower expectations of the new Mummy movie (and I guess that the next Hellboy release fits somewhere between these two, expectation wise).

Anyhoo, I think  was just about right. The first Mummy was a great film. This one grates a bit, but is generally OK. There are some nice lines and reasonable set pieces, and it is quite relaxing to go and see a film where you can predict the happy ending after around fifteen minutes into the picture. Trust me, Batman is not like that. I got the impression that this one was done a bit on the cheap, but perhaps the lush visuals of the Dark Knight have spoiled me a bit in this respect.

There is talk at the moment about plans to stop serving popcorn in movie theatres as it makes a bit of a mess and is thought to be somewhat downmarket in these sophisticated times. That would be a pity, as it is the perfect thing to eat during films like this.

The Dark Knight

We went to see the Dark Knight last night. And it was dark. What are the chances eh?

We were lucky enough to see it at IMAX in Bradford, on the huuuuuge screen. And it was great. A bit bleak perhaps, although there were some points where the finer aspects of human nature rose to the fore they tended to be slapped down again by the generally better organised forces of evil. They seemed to have unlimited supplies of barrels full of explosive that they could move around Gotham city and wire up at will.

Batman as a character doesn't really get the chance to do much but those around him more than make up for this, with a truly astounding  performance by Heath Ledger who doesn't much seem to perform the role of the joker as inhabit it. 

They seemed determined to give good value to the cinema goer, with set piece after set piece and some really cracking scenes. This perhaps made the film a little overlong, but the pace never lets up. And the sound is worthy of special mention, with very impressive bangs and crashes that really packed a punch.

It is very violent, particularly given the 12A rating, but you really should see it.

The X-Files Movie - I really wanted to believe

Just got back from the X-Files movie. I was expecting lights in the sky, backlit gray aliens and lines like "You're dealing with powers beyond your comprehension". What I got was a somewhat grisly movie with a sub-1950s horror story plot and a whole boat load of angst.

Much has been made of the way that the film breaks away from the original X-Files staples of global conspiracy, alien invasion and strange goings on from "out there". Unfortunately it seems to also have jettisoned original plotlines and anything particularly engaging about Mulder and Sculley, who spent a lot of time grappling with "issues" and pulling unhappy expressions.

If you are a fan of the TV show and the earlier movie I can't particularly recommend it. If you have never seen the X-Files before I don't think you will particularly enjoy it either.

Kung Fu Panda Kicks Ass

Went to see a kids film tonight. We went to the new Vue cinema at the top of Princes Quay in Hull. They use digital projectors and the picture was wonderful.  The film itself wasn't half bad either. I'd heard good things about it and they were all right.

There is a kind of production line for these kind of computer generated films at the moment, and many of them are are kind of "sub-Pixar, straight to DVD" kind of affairs. However, Kung Fu Panda is definitely a cut above any of these, mostly down to the great voicing by Jack Black amongst others. Nice story, some wonderful set pieces and generally lush images make this a film worth getting to see.

I was pleased to find that Vue was nice and busy when we came out of the film. It is a nice place to go to the movies and I hope it does well. In fact we are planning to see the X-Files movie at Vue on Friday...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Tonight we went to see the latest (and probably last) Indiana Jones movie. It felt like this is one of those films that you are obliged to go and see and so we went and did our duty. At the end of the day I reckoned that it was a proper Indiana Jones movie (but then again I watched some of the originals recently and formed the same opinion about them).

Much has been made made about the directors' determination to use "real" special effects rather than the inferior computer generated ones. This approach seems to have extended into making the CGI effects that they did use look rubbish, one or two sequences would have looked bad in a computer game. And some of the model work was so obviously a model that they didn't need to add a trademark camera wobble to give the game away as they panned over it. But they did.

And for a movie produced by seasoned professionals the continuity was very bad. I'm not very good at noticing things. Just ask number one wife after she has had her hair done. But even I spotted the way that the sauce bottles mysteriously stood themselves back up again in the diner scene.  All this served to detract a bit from the lush locations and expansive musical score.

At the end of the day, as I always say, "If you don't like what it says on the tin, don't open the tin". This was always going to be a big, dumb, action movie with one or two good set pieces. I don't think anyone has a right to ask for anything else. If that is what you want, you'll love it. Like I did.

Iron Man

Went to see Iron Man tonight. Good film. It's a superhero movie with a beating electric heart. Having a proper actor in the lead works very well, Robert Downey Jr. is excellent in the role. And it is nice to see no implausible "super powers" and completely broken laws of physics and instead some very nice looking, but vaguely fallible, technology.

The story was good, the climax was proper, there's a "will they-won't me" romance storyline in the works. I'll be there to see the sequel and the one after that.

Fools Gold

We went to see a movie tonight. We sort of have to pick the films based on the time they start, and on that basis we went to see "Fools Gold". This is a south sea caper with buried treasure, murderous rappers and a non "will they-won't they" romance strand. The characters are a bit one dimensional, the treasure plot is over complicated and Donald Sutherland's accent atrocious. But I can think of much more unpleasant ways to spend a few hours in a cinema. "There Will Be Blood" for example.

There Will Be Blood

Whenever I go to see a movie I write a report of it. Not sure why, let's just put it down to my determination to improve the value of this site. Then again...

Tonight it was "There Will Be Blood". Normally I avoid movies with the word "blood" in the title, but it has been well reviewed and number one son fancied seeing it.

Three hours later, as we emerged from the cinema, I reflected that I hadn't really learnt a great deal more about the human condition from the movie.  Some people are nice (though not many in this film), some people are nasty, and sometimes there are films about nasty people.

Daniel Day Lewis won an Oscar for his portrayal of Daniel Plainview, an aspiring oil baron with a very dark side. For an actor who wanted to get an Oscar the part must have been a dream come true. You can count the number of scenes which don't contain our flawed hero on the fingers of one leg. In this respect the film reminded me a lot of the The Aviator, in which which Leonardo DiCaprio played Howard Hughes, another big businessman who might not have been as nasty as Daniel, but ended up just as bonkers. Leonardo didn't get the Oscar though, which must have been a bit annoying for him.

Anyhoo, I can't really say that the film did a great deal for me. I'm not sorry that I saw it, it was well made and acted, but I learnt as much about ways of folk from The Emperor's New Groove, and it was a much more uplifting experience.

Déjà Vu with Vantage Point

Just been to see the movie Vantage Point. Kind of In the Line of Fire crossed with Groundhog Day. The president has been shot and you get to see this part of the action several times from the viewpoint of different protagonists.  Each time you find out a bit more of the plot until finally you make it to the evil doer's point of view and find out what is really going on. Then you get a really good car chase and a happy ending for those that survive. The constant repetition of the same scene grated a bit for me, but the ending mostly made up for it. Not as big or dumb as Die Hard 4.0, with no characters you really get time to empathise with, but not a bad way to spend an evening.

And we did get to see the amazing Grand Theft Auto Coke ad.

Top Billing?

Just watched Die Hard 4.0 (Will there be a 4.1? Will it have networking and workgroup support?) on DVD. Not seen it before. It is a big, dumb, action movie with some great lines and even greater explosions. For me the best bit was the credits, where some up and coming actor was billed as playing the part of "Nearby Agent". I don't think that's very helpful as a description. Lots of agents were near to John McClane at one time or another in the movie, but not usually for very long....

Cloverfield

One of Rob's movie rules is "The better the build up to the monster, the bigger the let down when you actually get to see it". Cloverfield doesn't break this rule. The look of the film itself is excellent. If a giant monster did attack New York, and the only document left was hand-held video footage from  someone underneath it, it would probably look a lot like Cloverfield.  Except for the monsters, which had the air of poorly rendered video game characters. They even had little monsterettes which looked like they were there just for the underground scenes. For my money it would would have been better if you never actually saw the monsters. Now that would have been scary.

Films have been made using camcorders before but they don't usually centre all the action entirely around camcorder footage shot by one of the participants. All the camcorder owner cliches are there, from not knowing how to use the camera to leaving it switched on by mistake.

The action starts at a party packed full of "Beautiful People" (tm). To be honest, this goes on a bit, setting up a romantic sub-plot. However, once the monsters turn up things happen very quickly indeed. And one by one the Beautiful People are picked off. The acting from the case of unknowns is very good, although it must have been very hard work for the young cast staying scared all the time.  Perhaps the reason there are no older, more unfit,  characters is that they would not be able to survive the making of the film.

If you like monster movies, you should see Cloverfield. Some of the scenes are excellent, and there are some really scary moments. But I don't think it will keep you awake for long at night. Not if you've played Doom or Quake.

I am Legend (and very depressed)

Went out to the movies tonight, I am Legend. We left the house with the intention of seeing the St. Trinians movie,  but we thought that something a little less lightweight might hit the spot better.

I am Legend is not lightweight. It is actually a zombie flick. I'm not saying that it is based on the video game "Resident Evil", all I'm saying is that the producer, the director, the writer and Will Smith must have played the game quite a lot. And got killed a lot.

The premise (the last man left alive is not alone) is quite an interesting one, but it has been done before. The whole film is basically a long downward spiral, with an uplifting bit at the end to stop the audience from all diving under busses after they leave the cinema.

And finally, a note to world leaders, when someone called Dr. Crippen invents a virus that purports to kill cancer, I think we should be very careful about letting her use it on real people.....

Enchanting Enchanted

I quite like some kids films. They have fewer bad things happen in them and, give or take a bit of singing, they are usually great fun. A well written one can be a treat, with slapstick for the kids (which I love) and some quite zingy dialogue (which I love). Enchanted hits the spot on both counts. It gives a nce take on fairytale vs. real life with some funny moments and some genuinely touching ones too. You get a standout performance from the princess and the ending is a properly happy one. Well worth a look.

The Golden Compass

I think I'm getting bored with movies packed with magic and mystery. I've seen too many bits where one character looks at another and asks in awe "You mean that this might be the chosen one?" And later someone says "..but no one must ever know..". And then we get a "..and took away my rightful throne...".

Well, The Golden Compass is all that and more, you even get a "..Luke, I am your father" moment towards the end. And you end up thinking "Meh. So what?".

Everyone plays their part quite proficiently. There are good goodies and bad baddies and baddies who might be goodies and I'm sure if they ever get to make the other two in the series we'll find goodies who are turned to the bad side by something or other. The special effects are pretty good, apart from a few "video game" moments in the fight scenes. Nicole Kidman, who must have been sponsored by a detergent company judging by the amount of white she wears, plays her part very well and even the child with awesome powers carries off her role with a certain amount of verve, even if her accent slides around a bit from scene to scene.

It is based on a book that I've not read, but it stands up well enough on its own if you like that sort of thing. And the problem for me is that there has been a lot of that sort of thing over the last few years.

Ratatouille

Rat's are not generally nice. We don't root for rats. Ratatouille is a film with a rat at the centre. And not a stylised "cute" rat in the mould of Micky Mouse. This is a proper ratty rat, who scurries and scampers and has many hundreds of swarming friends and family. Who don't always wash their hands.

That you know all this, and see all this, and still want the best for Reny, the gourmet cook with the wrong kind of whiskers, is testement to just how good this film is. The story is good, if it does sag a bit in the middle, the characterisations and voice acting is great and the rendering is beyond reproach. Everything looks great, and the images have an effortless quality about them. One of the great things about CGI is that you can take the camera anywhere, and they do this wiith verve and aplomb.

This is an excellent film at every level. Just go see it and give thanks for Brad Bird.