The Hole 3D, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Avatar Special Edition, The Town, The Last Exorism

Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D
I'm sorry to say this is quiet possibly the worst film I have seen this year... And I've seen alot of bad films. This film contains the worst wooden acting of the year. None of the characters have any motivation, literally none! The villains from the Umbrella corporation are ripped straight from The Matrix but in a shit way, because they are meant to be human... and for some reason they want to kill the surviving humans left of earth... for no reason whatsoever. Filled with the worst kind of stereotypes.
BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD ZERO STARS! NO STARS! MINUS STARS!
Oh yeah... and the 3d wasn't all that either.


Avatar Special Edition
Alot of people I talked to were very cynical about this re release, "Haven't we given James Cameron enough money", "Oh it's got 6 extra minutes of footage wow!". The six extra minutes are great! Cos when I first watched this film... I didn't want less I still wanted more! This is still a five star film, after seeing so many shoddy 3d attempts (the worst being Alice in Wonderland, Resident Evil and Clash of the Titans) it's nice to go back and watch this epic on the big screen. This film is basically Pocahontas set on an alien whole... doesn't change the fact it still kicks ass. Some of the extra footage is a whole new creature (which there is a scene of hunting it), Tsu'tey has a death scene (and also tells Jake that he must run the clan now), we see the school for the naavi the humans set up and yes there is ponytail sex.
Still 5 Stars

The Hole 3D

I had great hopes for the Hole, being a Fan of Gremlins knew Joe Dante was directing. A pair of brother move into a new house with their single mum, they discover a hole in their garage and when they open it weird things start to happen. I was quiet enjoying this film untill everything they did within the film just didn't make sense, "Wait here on your own I'm going to check it out", that kind of thing was constantly happening, why didn't they learn the first time. The film definitely went down hill when the kids decide to visit the old man who used to own their house at the glove factory... Bruce Dern (the so called actor they hired) was awful and it was obvious they wanted Christopher Lloyd. The 1/3 of the film, wrapping it up was painfully badly done. This is a kids film and should definitely be seen as that. If your older than 15 avoid. 2 Stars Bleh!

The Town

I did not realize Ben Affleck directed this and co-wrote when I went to see it and Affleck has directing chops for sure. Unlike Peter G I really liked this. My only problem with it was that they committed too many bank jobs within a short amount of time and that didn't make sense. The police are interviewing you ... you've got shit loads of money hidden away... why rob another bank?!
But saying this I liked it alot ... 4 Stars.

The Last Exorcism

I enjoyed this, the character were really likable. Filmed Ala Blair Witch or Cloverfield. The characters a filming a documentary that is supposed to reveal how exorcisms are fake and the priest taking part wants to show that it's all psychosomatic (he also has lost his faith in god). The priest opens the a letter at random and visits a family to prove how its all a trick to appease over religious families... all seems to go as planned and then strange things start happening. Overall very good but the climax seems to let the film down (which I won't tell you about for spoilers sake), the film really deserved a better ending. 3 and 1/2 stars.

Other Films I have Seen Recently:

Dairy Of a Wimpy Kid - 3 Stars, a kids film but at least they can act unlike the kids that seem to get cast in the UK.

The Rocker - 2 Stars, It's oldish now but could have been so good staring that guy from the American Office, starts off wicked, adult & funny and then turns into Band Camp or something.

Karate Kids 1-3 - Classics!

Karate Kid Next Generation - Not so classic.

The Town

Expectations were high going into this film, i am the perfect audience for this film. i love a good hard gritty urban crime drama. I'm sorry to say that i was a little disappointed, admittedly this could be due to me and my expectations rather than it being that bad a film because a bad film it is not.

Ben Affleck plays Doug Macray, a Boston bank robber, who suddenly finds a heart and falls in love with a girl who works in a bank that he robbed. it just felt a little too character development by numbers - bad guy, sees a girl, falls in love, wants to go straight. there isn't at any point any real reason that i can see for him to be totally changing his livelihood and going against everything he knows, his friends and his family, but that is exactly what he does. i did however find myself rooting for Ben Afflecks character, whether this is a testament to his acting charisma or the script i am unsure. he does indeed pull off a strong performance, he is obviously taken note of the Team America song and gone and got himself some acting lessons, even more credit to him to have taken the helm as director and writer also.

Other characters again seem stock people in Dougs life, Jeremy Renners character James Coughlin is an example - again a strong performance, but he plays the obvious crazy unhinged friend, and we are never given an insight to how and why. Mention here for Pete Postlethwaites part as a crime boss florist (??) with a very strange irish accent. theses characters makes the film seem like it has been under a number of re-writes and drafts, seemingly part of a much longer script which had much more complex characters, but in getting a running time down they have been shorn of their development.

a good film though with a solid, if a little empty, story. i just wich there had been more guns and shoot outs with the police.

3 stars

Dinner for Schmucks

my first thoughts of this film is that it was an absurdist comedy. Not the sort of film you would consider seeing coming out of mainstream Hollywood.

Steve Carrell plays Barry a strange freak with a heart of gold, he is befriended by Paul Rudds character Tim, who needs to find a "schmuck" to bring to a grotesque dinner party that his powerful work colleagues regularly hold - the winner is the colleague who brings the biggest schmuck. This is based on a french film by the name of The Dinner Game, but apparently is no where near as cruel in its depiction of it's Schmuck, indeed Barry could just suffer from a form of autism.

To me the film is a collection of gags and strange characters that wouldn't seem out of place in a sketch show, and that's about as cohesive as the scenes get. the film lurches from one sketch to another, albeit very funny, but they are with the same characters, and they do start to get tiresome. The characters are so , strange an so surreal that it seems impossible that they could live in such a normal world as the rest f the characters live - which is fine in a sketch show, but with the fleshing out of all the characters and situations it seems to clash and pulls you out of the film.

so in all in all a collection of funny characters and sketches but struggles as a coherent film.

2 stars

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World

Scott Pilgrim vs the World is awesome, well... it's good enough for me to have seen it twice within a week of it's release.

Scott Pilgrim wants to go out with Ramona Flowers... but she has 7 evil exs that he has to go thru ... blah blah blah blah blah.

Edgar Wright makes a blockbuster true to his Spaced ways, while making it action packed in every way. My only complaint is that there is too much action and that we don't get to see more of Scott Pilgrim's world. I guess that could have been solved by adding another hour to the film... which I defiantly would not have complained about.

The film is surreal and filled with pop culture references just like you'd hope any Edgar Wright film would be. People have energy bars for there pee, earn another points and get a 1up... this bizarre world gets two thumbs up from me.

Four and a half stars.

Salt

This was a good fun enjoyable movie if pretty much forgettable.

Jolie puts in a very solid performance as a CIA agent Evelyn Salt, who throughout the film is questioned about wether she is on the good side (America) or the baddies (Russia). Cue lots of chasing around America in disguises with guns and high intensity stunts.

this film offers nothing new and is a re-hash of many other CIA films. The big unique selling point of this movie was that the lead was a female not a male, as you probably know tom cruise was widely reported to have turned down the role, liking it to be too close to Ethan Hunt, an observation i would be inclined to agree with, even down to the latex facial disguises. Jolie gives a great performance and looks stunning on screen, she certainly has a screen prescence, but unless you are a fanatical feminist then the fact that its a girl doesn't really matter, it doesn't make a difference.

so good clean fun, with a very watchable Jolie.

3 stars

The Expendables

Splendid, brilliant, brilliant stuff. a truly brilliant Hollywood action movie.

this film treads the fine line between not taking itself to seriously and not sending itself up. all the characters and actors believe in what they are doing and commit to it, despite all the characters being wafer thin travelling along a plot that you could write on the back of a postage stamp.

But it doesn't matter, this is how action movies used to be made, back in the 80's. and watching this film it took me back to my early youth watching scharzenegger (yes i was a big arnie fan back in the day) be invincible on VHS at home whilst my parents were out because i was under 18, brilliant films, brilliant times.

to coin a cliche, they just don't make them like this anymore - action film has evolved as a genre - they are more thoughtful and intelligent with more complex characters and story structure, the most obvious example of this i Jason Bourne from the Bourne trilogy. these new action films are great and more complete films for sure, but there is still tremendous fun to be had in simple testosterone fuelled action heros creating havoc - and stallone does this with aplomb.

to sum up, watching the expendables it reminded me of Team America: World Police in which this type film is parodied so brilliantly, because of these parodies it has been a while since someone has had the balls to make such a film and to take it seriously - The Expendables is the film to do this. brilliant fun.

4 stars

The Last Airbender

Now i am not a fan of M.night Shyamalan, the sixth since was pretty good, but since then it has been downhill, and more recently that has been accelerated with his most recent films. Also, the first thing i heard about this film was the incredible dis-pleasure from the south east asian community at the casting of non-south east asian actors in the lead roles in a film that originates from that area. i still went into this film with unbiased eyes and a part of me really wanted to enjoy it - but my lord it is bad. appallingly bad. surprisingly bad, surprising because if it had been made by a complete novice with no film experience then it could maybe be expected, but Shyamalan has made films before, so it is a struggle to comprehend.

Script is the main problem. The dialogue is atrocious. Clunky sentence followed by clunky sentence. Each one delivered so weightily by the actors that it sounds like everything they are saying is such a prophecy, that the world will change after their sentence - this happens every time, every single time and you will obviously understand that the portentiousness fails to hit home after the 3rd or 4th time. Let alone the 57th.

The martial arts and the fight sequences offer nothing in way of respite for the horrendous dialogue. Noah Ringer (Aang) is obviously a very gifted martial artist and when he moves he looks brilliant swirling his arms around, but that's all he really does and then a few baddies fall over.

You don't believe the baddies and are unsure of the real motivations, in fact all the characters seem shallow and never fully realised. i could go on, but i think you get my drift regarding this film.

there was one vaguely memorable moment towards the end of film where Aang has managed to master the art of "bending" water, and he delivers a large scale movement of water to a crescendo of classical music, it looks and builds beautifully but ends in a weak, gentle splash.

One last thing that seems insignificant, but worth a mention for me, it is the moment when an ageing grandmother tells her young grand-daughter that "..when she first relalised that you were a bender...", juvenile i know, but the vast majority of English and European viewers will be giggling at this point - which is exactly what happened in my viewing.

1 star