Happy New Year

Hope everyone is having a good NewYear, Was in Edinburgh with friends and walked out into a main street and there was millions of people with flaming torches and crazy viking people...was rather confused and scared ... four year olds waving flaming sticks about :l 

When is it we go back btw? 12th Jan.?

Sunshine

Having seen this movie before a long time ago, I remember it being a decent movie, and my memory didn't lie. Having just watched it again on SkyMovies, all I can say is 'wow!' but I shall try say more for the purpose of this review.

As early as the opening scene you can tell this isn't your average 'Save the Earth' movie, it didn't go into detail about why the sun was dieing, or who these crew members were or how they had come to be on the space shuttle. Something which you see in near every other 'Save the Earth' action movie, but I think the director knew you just don't need to spoon feed the audience this, it doesn't matter why the sun is dieing or why the crew members were picked, you just know it is and they are their. 

This skips a-lot of unnecessary scenes and pointless dialog, which just wastes time and there is no need be spouting off a-lot of technical talk about the science behind the sun dieing and how the mission is going to stop it, because unless you are one of the select group alive able to understand such talk, its pointless. 

The opening scene just really grabbed me, it delivers so much in just a few shots.

From getting about half way into the movie it occurred to me, there wasn't fancy explosions and effects mashed into every shot, this again taking the viewer not to be a complete 'brain dead' it was far more about the story of the crew and the narrative. This makes this movie unique in my view. It really grabbed me and made me unsettled at some parts, the way it was cut together really put me on edge. The flicker of the crew member photos and the sometimes choppy edit cut, mixed with the sound effects really made for a suspenseful viewing.

I really liked the look of the whole movie it wasn't a cold pale space movie, their was a warm glow in near all the shots and just some of the framing of the shots were brilliant. Which gives this movie its unique look.

The characters in the movie are actually believable, they actually feel human and not just the imagination of a script writer on how a hero should be. I'm also glad their aren't any huge actors in this movie, again making it feel more real. Yes there is a-lot of leave me behind, save yourself in the movie, but it doesn't feel so outrageously in your face as in most movies. 

The whole movie is slow working building upto the event, it doesn't give much away in clues for the viewer to decode, which makes for a more suspenseful viewing.

  

You could almost feel some spark of connection between two of the crew members, but when I came to think where I got this from, I couldn't point it out. The characters were that believable I found myself thinking about their past, had these crew members been together before? did something happen their? A real credit to the narrative, this film almost knows it doesn't need to prove anything to anyone and just tells a believable gripping story from start to finish. It really doesn't take the audience for granted and really delivers in the form of story and narrative.

All I can really say is if you haven't watched this movie I would advice you to get a copy, it really is a fantastic watch. Even if you hate the story you will love the cinematography of this movie. It's a true piece of truth on how to deliver a story visually as-well as in narrative.

TV ?

I've just noticed, having been with out a TV since I moved to Glasgow on the 1st September, I don't miss it. I gave this some thought and well, Its because TV is far over rated these days. Their are no shows that I can think of that have grabbed me recently. You might ask how do you know, not having a TV and all. Well I go home at weekends and I sit and watch a bit there, but all I find myself doing is flicking from channel to channel. Is there actually anything else on apart from how to decorate your house with £5 ?
And me being lazy I see it as the TV companies job to get to me via marketing about any new amazing tv series coming out, they have failed in every way. Having been in Glasgow for months now, I haven't seen one internet advertisement, poster, or any form of viral marketing to get me to go out my way to watch any TV show. If this was done I might pay to see it via iTunes or such. They are really failing really badly at this new fangled internet thing arent they.

Channel Four got it right with 'Dead Set' they had lots of advertisments on the social site Bebo, which I go on about everyday. So that got me interested and most importantly ... aware of the show in the first place. And after looking at the Dead Set site and trailers they had on it of the show, I decided to dip into my pocket and pay to watch it on iTunes, since everyone hates Macs and their watch TV online thingy doesnt work on a Mac. But again, they done this and they got money from me. Why is everyone else failing to catch on?

Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace to me was a confused film, at the start the car chase as Andy had said was film geography gone wrong, I was lost in who was chasing who, where each person was or where they were heading to.
The first large part of the film was, fight scene shot from about every possible angle which again confused me on where each person was, or who was chasing who, then followed by a random scene with M with some random MI6 people talking about something random then back to another fight/chase scene.

The characters through out the film, were dare I say it again ... 'Random' was random scene after random character after random fight/chase scene. I was confused on what the hell was going on until the last leg of the film. Even then it was a stretch, I really had to think about it.
It wasn't a bad film by any means, it just wasn't good either. A agent hopelessly lost after his only love having died, sure gets over it fast.
The film was playing the fact that he was after revenge and would kill any one to get to those responsible, but he went from this to casually getting with another woman, yeah its bond he's supposed to be like this. But that just ruined any credibility on the plot of him being motivated by revenge and he was some sort of 'dark knight' then it went from that back to him being revenge driven again, was just all a tad unbelievable.

And for anyone who knows me, my memory isn't my best feature, and for a large chunk of the viewing audience they don't want to have to think about what their watching, and in this bond it was playing on alot of things that happened in Casino Royale. The whole way through I was like, I kinda recognize that guy from the first one but who is he again? ... It didnt go to any length to remind the viewer of who these people were, or what they had done. The end scene I was just plain confused. It didn't make any sense to me, which ruined a film that had regained some momentum in its closing acts.

Over all, the word of the day is 'Random' its a randomly put together film and doesnt go to any length to properly resolve anything in fact. Having just watched it, im struggling to remember what happened in it. Probably due to the fact it was all glued together by fight scene after fight scene after chase. I felt I was watching a marshals arts movie, the narative surely took a back seat in this movie.

From the looks of it

Why am I getting the feeling that the new Terminator is going to be another disappointing action movie? ... by all looks of it, it looks really good, but that isn't making this nagging feeling that its going to be so bad go away. By all means I should be looking forward to it, the trailers...posters...marketing are all showcasing it to be amazing. Is this Andy's classes telling me not to go on first looks?
From the trailer it shows alot of action and, well alot of things getting blown up .. Yay! But there's almost to much action in it, that's whats making me suspicious, they usually chuck in all the action bits into trailers to make people think waw! then when the films swings along, theres no more action in it than from the trailer. I just really hope this isnt going to dissapoint, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' has made me look twice at trailers since that fooled me to go see it.
Dam them and their hippy ways!

Also noticed that a new film with Nicolas Cage 'Knowing' trailer is out, To be perfectly honest, I'm not even going to look at it. The last 4 films I've seen with him in them have been laugh out loud ridiculous. Where does that dude get his hair cut? He has some dodgy hair doo's on the go in every movie he's in.

Wall-E

I watched Wall-E this afternoon, after being let down by a number of past animation films I wasn't aspecting much from it. The studios have got to ... well good at animating these days and they think they can churn out an animated film with no storyline or thought behind it and we will like it anyway for the pretty effects.

But after getting 5 or so minutes into Wall-E I knew this was different. I actually laughed a few times...yes I do laugh. It was such a simple idea, a small trash compacting robot, the last one left on earth going about his business each day. Because it was so simple and with no dialog in the first act it was more about the character, and not the animation. The character Wall-E was brilliant, he had so much personality to him, and to achieve this with no dialog was nothing less than brilliance by the studio.

I found myself completely drawn into the movie the whole way through, there wasn't a stage were I thought it was getting thin at any point. Again I think this is down to it being so simple of a film. It didn't try to be something it wasn't, it didn't go for the oblivious gags a jokes that other animations go for ... such a 'Shrek' yeah didn't that one get old soon?

Although Wall-E lands himself getting beaten up pretty bad a few times through the movie you just knew he was going to be alright in the end, which is just fine for a kids movie, I wouldnt aspect anything less to be honest. I wouldn't want anything less from a animated film. You watch these movies to lift your mood and make you smile and laugh, which is exactly what Wall-E does.

Overall a perfectly crafted animated film, which has made me think twice before reffering to toy story being the best animated film ever.

The day the earth stood still

Looking at the trailer this film looked OK, It didnt look amazing by any means. But I did aspect more from this film.

I really dont know what to write about this film...because to be honest not alot happened to write about. The whole films plot and characters just didnt sit right with me. From the very begining I could tell it was going down hill. It was a typical American action movie, at the start something is about to come in contact with the earth so they send for all these top scientists.

Just like in all the action movies...why? Its like your a doctor, you have a fancy title you must know something about aliens. But they didnt even ask them about it, it was kind of like heres the biggest discovery of the history of the Earth...stand back and watch how I shoot at it. Nice eh...that missile just there added a nice touch dont you think?

It was all abit of a bosched job, I completely disengaged from it early on. From what I could see there was alot of running about and not much action...god dammit I payed to see an action movie, where is it? Far too much mono tone acting and just plain silly plot lines.
Yes that robot thingy over there...how's about we put it in a really, really big box and drill a hole in it? Can we shoot at it a few more times though?...urm OK if you must.

From what I could tell the 'Aliens' came, they saw then walk about for awhile...not before destroying a few buildings in the process. What? there was no point in that what so ever. Also about 12 product place ments per shot, was really getting distracting. I swear some of the shots where stolen aswell...those shots of empty New York I swear were near exactly the same as the ones in 'I Am Legend' and the last scene of hiding out in the tunnel...Cloverfield people?

All together as Paul put it 'I felt like I havnt seen a movie and I've just been in a coma' That pretty much sums it up for me too. The characters have near no development, the kid gets anoying after awhile. All together just making for a poor movie.