Youth in Revolt

Youth in revolt. A good funny film. Michael Cera does the same job as he ever does with the awkward geeky guy character. The film is about the pursuit of a geek in pursuit of attaining his virginity with a fit girl he meets whilst he is on holiday, not the most original story. In order to get the girl he becomes an alter ego called Francois an uber cool french student who smokes ciggarettes and is as rebellious as they come who makes our loveable geek, Nick Twisp, win the girl of his dreams.

this is enjoyable enough stuff, it does get a little surreal at points when the alter ego first appears, but this keeps you on your toes and keeps the film from falling complete;y into the forgetable teen virginity losing rom-com bracket. good fun.

3 stars

Invictus

oh dear, oh dear. old Clint Eastwood, directing Morgan Freeman in a bio-pic about the great Nelson Mandela. should have been awesome - Oscar gold. its a shame then that they didn't choose a part of his life that had any relevance whatsoever. When you think of Nelson Mandela i can guarantee that you don't think of the rugby world cup in 1995, why then did they choose to make a film of this part of his life is beyond me - it's not like the Mandela is lacking in any interesting other parts in his life. the film ambles along trying to make it all grandeur and emotional but in the end there is nothing to it, its a film about an old man following a rugby team winning a few games. the script is clunky and overdone, spelling everything out, subtlety it seems, did not exist in post apartheid South Africa.

such a shame, a biopic directed by eastwood about one of the greatest men alive today should have been great at the very least good. i'll give it two stars just because the Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman do very well with very limited source material.

2 stars

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Well what a load of old nonsense this is. It is basically a cheap rip off of Harry Potter (note the same director Chris Columbus), but instead of wizards they are sons of Greek gods, living in normal life. The story and characters are rushed and flat, the kid actors give it a fair crack of the whip but ultimately they are still outstandingly poor. This may have something to do with a weak script and storyline, so predictable it is insulting.

The only saving grace here is the fact that I believe it is ultimately a very good premise for a film – the idea that Greek gods are amongst us in modern day life I think gives great scope for an entertaining film, but this is so cheaply done it is a bad, bad watch.

1 star

Daybreakers, Nowhere boy, The Road, Book of Eli

The first 40 minutes of Daybreakers has fun messing with the ideas of what-if-vampires-ruled-the-world kind of film? I was enjoying it, as it was gory in a silly way that reminded me of Dusk till Dawn but then it started going down hill. The final hour turned into crap. They would bring in characters that we didn't care about just to kill them in the next scene and have sad music like we were supposed to care about them. Ultimately the script & film looses momentum with a silly cure for being a vampire and a fairly lame "epic" climax.

2 stars (worth a watch on dvd maybe).

Nowhere Boy is about John Lennon growing up and forming his first band... but it's also about his messed up childhood. It doesn't shy away from showing his mother as being abit easy or him acting like a prick, it tells the story with all it's dirty secrets. Very strong performances from the actors involved.

4 stars.

The Road is dark and depressing as it looks. There isn't anything to eat, everyone is starving... except the cannibals I guess. They get the ruined earth spot on, with the empty highways grubby faces... horrible teeth. About a Man and his son traveling in the hopes of finding somewhere in america that isn't so apocalyptic.

What ruined this film for me was there slight reference that the would got that way from "climate change", and as something that is getting constantly shoved down our throats at the moment it really bugged me. Oh yeah and the kid constantly whining to his Dad, you would think being brought up in such a harsh environment he would have slightly thicker skin. There is also a point in the film where the boy and the Dad hear a dog barking and the boy says that he hears a dog (and the Dad says he's wrong)... they had already explained early that all the animals (including insects) had all died out/been killed off even before the boy was born... so how would he know what one even sounds like?

SPOILER ALERT

With the end... I personally found it odd and not overly realistic (motivation wise on the other family), the boy left on his own is approached by a man telling him to come this him and the boy believes what the man tells him. A few minutes later the boy meets his new family who already have two kids and a dog. The wife of the man tells him how "she had been so worried for him" and they had been following him and his Dad for weeks. Why there following them if they knew he was safe with his Dad?! Why didn't they attempt to approach them if they were that worried? Were they a bunch of stalkers!?

The Father and son should have stayed in the bomb selter they found with all the food a little while longer and got slightly healther before heading out into the world again.

But even with all my negativity it's still a decent well made film - 3.5 stars.

The Book of Eli is less the apocalyptic vision of The Road but more like Mad Max, don't worry about running out of ammo... everyone has shitloads! I was also enjoying this film as mindless entertainment... untill I realized it really was quite a crap film with a couple of decent fight scenes at the start. Gary Oldman plays a villian that he's done many times before, who is trying to get Denzel Washington's copy of the bible, which also just so happens to be the last on Earth. Mila Kunis is a bar wench who decides that she is better off with Denzel... because he's so bad ass... but also can read and has an ipod. What was really confusing was the film makers, I'm not sure if they were hinting it or showing it... that Denzel had been blind the whole time... which makes absolutly no sense... but what's the point of thinking about this stinker too much. - 2 Stars (just for the violence & having Mila Kunis as eye candy)

Pocahontas/Avatar

Don't know who made this, but it's brilliant...

IT'S COMPLICATED

This is a feel good rom-com that does exactly what it says on the tin. Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin all have tremendous fun playing the three main characters in the complicated love triangle of the title, and it is refreshing to see a film that deals with it at a more mature age and not at some American high school, though the same issues, problems and situations remain the same!

Not much more to be said about this. It’s just a good fun film and the one great thing about it is it leaves you constantly guessing as who should be with who and will pull (gently) at your heart strings as you see the relationships and the people involved go on their rollercoaster journey throughout the film.

3 stars

THE ROAD

This is a great film, but it is also a very dark and bleak film. There are moments where it will leave your heart empty and black. It is set in a post apocalyptic America and centres around Man, played brilliantly by Vigo Mortenson, and his son, trying to survive in this lawless land where food is scarce and other human cannibals roam. In a few flashbacks we see Man, with his then wife Charlize Theron, who couldn’t take the harshness of this new reality and leaves them by choosing to take her own life, this makes the rest of the film seem even harsher knowing that many people would rather die than to continue struggling to survive. Watching this film you get to see two very different sides to the human psyche, firstly it is the unflinching bond of love between a boy and his son (played with outstanding brilliance by Kodi Smit-McPhee). And the sacrifices they make for each other. On the flip side you see humanity at its lowest and most desperate form, feral groups hunting America for other humans to eat, sometimes storing them in cellars to feed on at a later date, and the absolute feeling of each man for himself and the primeval instinct for self survival, brilliantly shown in a moment when Man and Boy argue about what to do with a man they come across.

So a terrifically performed film, just don’t go see if you’re depressed or feeling down. That said the ending, whilst still realistic, is not all and gloom .

4 stars