Looking Upwards and Dreaming

#065: The Aristocrats

Tue, 22 May 2012 22:23:54 +0100

I’m not sure I’d actually recommend this to anyone who’s not genuinely fascinated by comedy and comedians, but I found this to be a decent watch. Is it that funny? Not really. As with any movie based on a single joke it does start to wear thin after a while, but I do love to hear comedians talk about their craft and so the conceit of having so many comedians dissecting a single joke made for an intriguing insight.

Not too great a movie, to be honest, but I found it reasonably interesting.

Grade: ***

#064: Chronicle

Mon, 14 May 2012 01:42:40 +0100

I enjoyed this. I guess I felt the final act didn’t quite match up to the rest, but on the whole I thought this was a very fresh, well-constructed take on a familiar genre. I mean, if you ask me if I want to watch a superhero movie it probably won’t be my first choice, but if I was putting together a marathon it’d definitely have a place. It’s a nice little breath of fresh air.

Grade: ****

#063: The Raid

Wed, 09 May 2012 02:05:23 +0100

This was good. I maybe wasn’t quite as invested emotionally as I am during the best action movies, but based on the action alone it’s pretty excellent stuff. It’s really reminiscent of the martial arts movies I used to watch as a kid but also kind of modern in how breathless, violent and relentless it is. There’s not a lot in terms of story, but that’s not why I went.

Grade: ****

#062: This Means War

Tue, 08 May 2012 02:11:36 +0100

Why is Chris Pine’s hair so big so much of the time? Is it attractive? I find it really weird and off-putting. My brother and I were discussing whether he’d make a good action movie star and my main argument against it is that, after further consideration, his hair freaks me out. It throws the proportions of his head right off. So yeah… that’s something.

Aside from that this movie was pretty much what I’d expected. It’s kind of lame in most ways, but I didn’t hate watching it. It’s one of those where you feel like there might have been something there if the script had been given a bit more work. Instead, everything falls just short.

Grade: **

#061: Tiny Furniture

Tue, 08 May 2012 01:56:23 +0100

A girl graduates from college and finds herself living at home, confused and struggling to find herself: I thought I was going to like and connect with this more than I did, but it was still okay. It’s confident and kind of impressive but there were key areas of the movie I couldn’t get into. Aura and her family and friends and her work? Good. Aura and boys? Not so good. And so my interest piqued and fell accordingly.

I saw enough that I’m looking forward to Girls, but I can’t see myself revisiting this.

Grade: ***

#060: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

Sun, 06 May 2012 22:32:16 +0100

I found this atop several “funniest musicals” lists, but I can’t say I agree with that based on the movie. It is pretty funny and the 60’s bawdiness does have a certain charm, but I couldn’t really hack a whole movie’s worth of it. It’s like a musical Carry On… and honestly I could never really bear those movies either. Not terrible, but not for me.

Grade: **

#059: Hell and Back Again

Fri, 04 May 2012 02:13:03 +0100

There’s kind of an unfair pressure on documentaries to be original. Almost any other genre of film can retread old ground and, presuming it’s written well enough, manage to excite and entertain. But a documentary, even if it’s well-made, will rarely grab you in the same way if you’ve seen something similar before. That was pretty much the case with this. It was decent, but there was no narrative thrust and it didn’t really show me anything I haven’t seen before.

It’s sad all the same - almost any study of war is - but it’s nothing particularly enlightening.

Grade: ***

#058: The Avengers 3D

Tue, 01 May 2012 00:34:36 +0100

As a Marvel guy and a Joss Whedon nerd, I was obviously pretty excited about this. And though it maybe wasn’t everything I dreamed of, I’d definitely say it was all I could have reasonably hoped for: an impressive action epic with lots of fun moments for fanboys and casuals alike. Iron Man is awesome, Hulk is by far the best he has ever been and it never really suffers the “too many cooks” syndrome I thought it might.

Probably my third favourite Marvel movie after Iron Man and X-Men: First Class.

Grade: ****

#057: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 01:07:39 +0100

You know that this movie is a failure when you spend most of it wondering if Robert Downey Jr. has lost his charm. It can’t be true. He’s one of those guys who will be oozing charisma even when it has to fight its way through the eventually saggy, wrinkled folds of his geriatric flesh. He is that cool. But I watched this and I couldn’t see it at all. It all seemed so laboured I felt like I’d had enough after five minutes. RDJ’s charm should be the seasoning, but here it’s served as the meal.

If there’s another movie in this franchise I won’t be watching it.

Grade: **

#056: Like Crazy

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:14:21 +0100

I thought this was a pretty impressive movie, but the truth is I couldn’t truly enjoy it because everything it’s about is just too alien to me. It’s about these young lovers feeling all these things I’ve never felt and I’m just not equipped to engage with it properly. Mostly it just left me feeling confused as to how and why anyone would put themselves through such drama. But hey, if you think you have the answer to that question, I guess this movie is more for you than me. Enjoy it with your significant other while I sit here wishing I lived alone in the woods.

Grade: ***

#055: Sleepaway Camp

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:41:13 +0100

Y’know, I thought I’d seen this movie, but there’s no way I could have forgotten that ending if I had. Yikes. That was some real burn-indelibly-into-your-brain type shit. Cool though. And I particularly loved the crazy aunt character. I feel like I want to go around talking like her and annoying people indefinitely. But, no, that simply wouldn’t do, would it? Oh no, it wouldn’t do at all! Oh, and the paedo chef! “Where I come from we call ‘em baldies”. Bleeeuuurgh.

It’s a fun combo of schlock and shock.

Grade: ***

#054: The Sitter

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 01:22:43 +0100

I remember when I saw the trailer I thought it seemed super lame, so why I watched it anyway I’m not quite sure, but it totally lived up to expectation. It maybe wasn’t as dreadfully unfunny as I thought it would be, but it’s just so unforgivably lazy. If you’ve seen Adventures in Babysitting, you’ll get nothing from it; and if you haven’t seen either movie and you’ve got a choice between Jonah Hill and 80’s Elisabeth Shue, I think the choice is pretty clear.

There’s really no reason this movie should exist.

Grade: *

#053: The Hunger Games

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:22:00 +0100

“Two hundred miles per hour and you can barely feel a thing!”

I’m not exactly sure what I thought of this movie, to be honest. I read the book for the first time only a week ago and I think it was the fastest I’ve ever read a novel. It was super compelling, the end of each chapter practically forced me to read on and I genuinely enjoyed it. I think, though, that the breakneck pace which made the novel is kind of what hurts the movie. I won’t know for sure until I see the movie when my memories of the book have faded, but for now it felt like I was having to fill in a lot of the gaps myself. The action, the emotion, the romance: everything buzzes by so fast I don’t think I felt any of it as strongly as I would have liked.

It was still pretty good for a teen-oriented summer action movie, but not much more.

Grade: ***

Spoilery postscript (book and movie)…

I was especially disappointed that my favourite moment from the book was missing. When District 11 send Katniss that bread for what she did for Rue? Shit, man. In the book that bit nearly made me cry. It was so moving. But in the movie what we got was anger, rebellion and - I’m guessing - sequel foreshadowing. Meh! I think this movie could have done with that moment.

#052: Senna

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 03:39:00 +0100

A lot of hype around this one, but I thought it was good. The way it’s pieced together almost exclusively from old footage is impressive and the tale itself is super compelling, from the rivalry with Prost to the build-up to his eventual death. It was gripping. And the fact that it made F1 seem even vaguely exciting to me is a victory in itself. Who knew such drama existed in such an infernally dull sport to watch?

Very good.

Grade: ****

#051: The Cabin in the Woods

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 23:51:05 +0100

Wow. All the marketing said “you think you know what it’s going to be, but then it turns into something else” and I arrogantly thought, “yeah, I think I can imagine how it’ll shake out”. Nope. Not at all. Not even close. And being surprised like that makes for a fun movie experience.

To talk about it too much beyond that would only spoil it, I think. Suffice to say, it’s Joss Whedon and Drew God, I watched with all my Buffy… writer fanboy enthusiasm and I wasn’t disappointed at all. Funny, scary, fresh, inventive, violent: I can’t say it’s perfect or anything, but it’s got almost everything I like to see in a fun horror movie.

Grade: ****

#050: We Bought a Zoo

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:16:32 +0100

I liked this. I can see how some people might not, because at times it’s almost so Cameron Crowe that it borders on self-parody, but I dig those moments. People holding their arms out by their side, adorably precocious children, people making big public declarations about life, relentless cool music: I’m down with it all. And, sure, it does feel like Crowe simply found a project on which he could easily superimpose his style rather than presenting something heartfelt and original, but whatever. I thought it was sweet anyway.

Grade: ***

#049: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 23:52:30 +0100

I don’t have much to say about this that I didn’t say the first time. Mostly while I was watching I wondered how long it will be until I can read the books and have them feel kind of fresh again. I guess a consequence of that ferocious intimacy you build with things as a nerd means it will take quite a while. It’s already been years since I’ve read any of the books and the memories are still too vivid. I look forward to the time when they’re not.

Grade: ***

#048: The Devil and Daniel Johnston

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 15:28:37 +0000

This was very good. I’d heard a lot about it obviously, but the actual depths of the craziness still managed to surprise me. I mean, that bit with the plane? My mouth was agape. And that there’s so much archive footage of this guy’s life coupled with all those audio recordings, I guess it’s no surprise it makes for a compelling documentary.

Grade: ****

#047: The Late Shift

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:58:26 +0000

It’s not the most cinematic affair and the two lead impersonations were slightly distracting throughout, but I enjoyed watching this. I watched it after hearing about it on the Nerdist podcast with Conan O’Brien and, in the context of all that drama with him and The Tonight Show the other year, this made for pretty compelling viewing.

Grade: ***

#046: Carnage

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 02:02:47 +0000

I genuinely enjoyed this movie, but I’m not sure how vociferously I’d recommend it to anyone. These movies I tend to love - one room, all dialogue, no action - are often derided by some people as kind of pointless, as if a real story can’t be told that way. And though something like 12 Angry Men offers obvious evidence against such thinking, this, I have to admit, really isn’t much of a story. It’s a scene. An elongated, albeit very well-measured and written, comedy sketch performed by four excellent actors.

I learned nothing, I felt little, but I liked it for what it was.

Grade: ***