Preview
So it was The Cutting Room Floor blogger’s birthday this week and that meant two trips to the cinema! Yay! One of my own choosing and one of my mother’s but hey a trip to the cinema is a trip to the cinema isn’t it? And who’d have thought it but I actually enjoyed her choice more than my own. This week once again high expectations for a cinema release cause a big let-down and one that wasn’t expected to be liked won me over.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to describe Cineworld’s organisational skills as poor. I had a hankering for a hot dog on one trip to the cinema this week and had to go without because even though they had been open for an hour they hadn’t put any on yet and the bloke even had the cheek to say comeback twenty minutes into the film and they’ll be ready then! I found this pretty ridiculous but anyway this has little to do with film so please read on and enjoy this movie blog from my mind and slowly typing fingers to your pretty little eyes.
Preeeview
The beaver
So yeah I know Mel Gibson isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and he hasn’t been for some time now. But this could mark the comeback of all comebacks. With a little help from Jodie Foster and a small furry beaver (steady), this film looks like it could be one of those surprise hits that just doesn’t get the attention but builds up slowly overtime and becomes a classic. Certainly if the film can mirror the trailers uplifting vibes then this looks like an absolute winner.
Gibson's starting on CBBC this week
The most interesting part of this has to be the fact that The Beaver mirrors its star’s struggles off the screen and so this film seems to take on added meaning and relevance. The story looks like one that is easy to relate to and if done right will speak directly to the audience which is critical. So yes Mel Gibson clearly isn’t our favourite star anymore and probably never will be but remember Lethal Weapon? Remember Mad Max? Remember Braveheart? Remember What Women Want (well I liked it)? Prepare to like Hollywood’s favourite anti-Semitic, wife beater again just a little bit more than before.
Reeeview
Cinema
Suckerpunch
Ever been out with or even just been around someone that just looks so pretty but when they open their mouth nothing of any great substance comes out. This film reminds me of the poem “the empty vase” (at least I think that’s what it was called) written by a Latino hunk on Friends about Monica. Let me assure you if you like looking at pretty and cool things this film is without doubt a winner.
The problem is if Zack Snyder’s comments are true that this film is to challenge female roles in geek films and empower them, then I’m afraid he’s lost his mind. Kitting out five hot girls in skimpy outfits and calling this a feminist film is laughable. If that’s what you’re after in my opinion Tarantino did it with Kill Bill. In Suckerpunch the key to the girl’s power is using their sexuality to trick their male counterparts and this undermines the point of feminism completely.
There can be nothing not to like about this picture
Anyway enough of the feminism crap, the real point of this film is the action, the guns and the babes. The girls look to escape their asylum they have all been committed to by acquiring certain objects. To do this they must inhabit a world of make believe that they themselves control (confused? Don’t worry; I think that means that you are actually sane). There are three levels in this film, the reality of the asylum, the imagined bordello the girls imagine the asylum is and the epic fight scenes that are imagined again when they preform dances for their victims. The levels of make believe will leave you in the audience confused and wondering which ones are actually necessary.
The problem is that I enjoy a little emotion in a film and with Suckerpunch with all of the insane fights and crazy action sequences any sense of reality or danger to the characters was lost. Even when I should have felt real empathy for a characters plight at one stage I could only sit there with a heart of stone. This was a big disappointment for me and it was the moment that made me realise the biggest failing of this film.
Yeah sure there were awesome fights, cool lines, sweet costumes, hot girls and the flashy directing of Snyder (which although I’m a fan, he went a little overboard compared to previous efforts in Watchmen and 300). But in the end did any of it matter? I’m afraid not. I left the cinema thinking “yeah but what was the point in all that?” And I couldn’t come up with an answer.
The Eagle
I wasn’t too keen to see this I have to admit. Compared with Suckerpunch which I couldn’t wait to see I was struggling to get excited about this one. Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell in the countryside? It just sounded like one for the girls. I was wrong. This is a good little film, I say little because of the relatively small budget it was made with. The director created a haunting looking British countryside with colour saturated shots and beautiful string soundtrack giving the second half of the film a distinctly Scottish feel.
Once you get over that yes all the Romans seem to speak with an American accent (even one of the actors playing a Roman is English but puts on an American accent Joss Stone would be proud of). I was wondering how the leads would get on a little out of their comfort zone in a film without any dancing but Tatum and Bell were very good throughout (especially Bell although I have seen Tatum act better in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints). A special mention should also go to the menacing and mysterious Seal people that they encounter in the second half of the film. They are disturbing and dangerous non-clichéd enemies that move away from what you might expect of usual Scottish barbarians.
Billy Elliot's hoping hes challenging them to a dance off
Any film about Romans will still have to live up to the expectations of Gladiator even now eleven years after its release. That’s why making this on a smaller budget, with a more personal story and smaller box office expectations benefits this film. It’s no epic, it’s not the best film you’ll ever see but it tells a tale that will make you want to know the ending of and that’s an element in film that not everyone seems to remember.
DVD
Lars and the real girl
Ryan Gosling’s every teary eyed woman’s dream. Best known for being the biggest object of female affection on film for his role in the notebook until twilight and its saps rolled up (twilight bashing will be a main feature of all future blogs). However look beyond your blurry vision from the tears streaming down your face from that Alzheimer’s romance and you will see one of the best actors in small budget independent films around. Along with his performance as a drug addict teacher in half nelson and his half of the relationship charting Blue Valentine with Michelle Williams he truly cements himself as one of my favourite ever actors with Lars and the Real Girl.
Never in a million years could the premise of a film about a man who orders a sex doll from the internet to be his girlfriend ever sound like a touching, heart-warming film or even one that could be taken seriously when it was pitched to the fat cats that funded this quirky little project. But with a delicate script, great performances and an unbelievable amount of knitted jumpers that even Bridget Jones and her Mr Darcy would be proud of the audience will find itself transported to an altogether more innocent environment and outlook on life. And who could ever think that a sex doll would do that.
Lars and Bianca. Awwwww!
Granted the original introduction of the story could be easily mistaken for some cheap sex comedy from the 1970’s but instead this film is something that I could see anybody enjoying. And even though this cutting room floor inhabitant is hardly a stone hearted individual I found myself as moved if not as emotionally drained as I was by the end of the notebook. This film is an anomaly. It’s a film about a fake relationship between a man and his doll and their interaction with the community around them. However it feels more real than most on screen relationships between two human actors that I have ever seen (Orlando Bloom and other cardboard cut-out performers take note).
Odd-bin
Yoo-star 2
Dreamt of being up on the silver screen starring in your own action movie? Well now all us film lovers dreams can become reality in this remarkable game for PS3 and XBOX 360. Using the Move and Kinect technology recently released for the consoles now you can enjoy fun times in your living room at home uttering the classic lines from your favourite films. If this game has a Napoleon Dynamite scene I’m in.
Space Battleship Yamato
So once again I was getting all confused about which film Rihanna is making her big screen debut on and while searching YouTube for it I found this. It looks like the biggest budget foreign movie I’ve ever seen. I was literally getting geek goose bumps watching this. Have a look and see what you think.
Soundtrack
The Joy Formidable- Whirring
Wiz Khalifa- Roll Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhQz-0QVmQ0LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock- Party Rock Anthem
