Like Owls? Like Owls In Helmets? Like Australian Owls in Helmets? No? Well that's probably for the best.
Legends of the Guardians has one serious problem, it’s trying to do way too much at once. Imagine if Peter Jackson had attempted to cram all three Lord of the Rings books into one film and the mess that would have been the result. Well that’s pretty much what has been attempted in Legends of the Guardians, The Owls of Ga’Hoole, and it certainly shows.
I didn’t really know what to expect from Submarine. The writer-director, Richard Ayoade, is best know for his roll as Moss in the IT Crowd, and I had my doubts about his abilities in a role behind the camera. Perhaps I was expecting the IT crowd, along with all its silliness, but in a different setting; well this isn’t that at all, but for all the right reasons.
Scream 4, simply put, is Meta out the arse, but once you get past this perfect storm of self-referential madness, there isn’t all that much to write home about.
It’s strange to see scream 4 in 2011, or should I say SCRE4M (its always cool when they do that right?…). It’s been over fourteen years since the original and that is a lot of time to leave between a sequel, especially one that is so referential to the genre within which it is couched, and one that has gone through somewhat of a metamorphosis in the intervening decade. Gone are the days of the Slasher flick that characterised horror genre back in the days of Scream 1. Replacing it are other forms of horror, the torture porn genre (probably the worst name you could give anything ever) with films like SAW and Hostel , though even that has probably seen its end. As well as that you have the videotaped, home-made style of horror; starting with Blair Witch in 1999, but more recently seen in the Paranormal Activity films. Alongside these two ‘bastions’ of horror film making you have the rise of the remake, Nightmare on Elm’s street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Amityville Horror and Dawn of the Dead to name but a few. Scream 4 then, attempts, like its predecessors, to de-construct the slasher flick, while also attempting to de-construct these newer horror genre quirks, most notably the idea of a remake.
Burke and Hare is an alright film, it just isn't funny; what's the point of the comedy that isn't funny?
I was rather interested in seeing Burke and Hare. Quite recently (well about 6 months ago) I travelled up to Edinburgh and came into contact with the legend of Burke and Hare, the true story of two illustrious evil-doers who took grave robbery to a whole new level by murdering people and selling their corpses on. I thought to myself, how do you make something as horrible as that, funny? That was obviously the problem facing those behind Burke and Hare, and plainly they made the wrong decisions.
Every year now there are countless animated films jumping of the Pixar fuelled bandwagon and 2011 is definitely no exception. We’ve already seen Gnomeo and Juliet (…..), Rango, Mars Needs Moms (Moms?) and we have yet to come: Cars 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Happy Feet 2, Smurfs, Puss in Boots and a number of other 'thrilling' titles. Obviously it is a difficult task to rise above the mediocre in this ever expanding genre, and Rio does just that, and with some style.
An interesting mockumentary (though there is little mocking to be found) about the issues of extremism and the morality of hunting, this so called ‘horror/thriller’, is actually neither of these, leaving a film with a interesting style, but one that ultimately holds it back as entertainment.
Blooded is definitely an interesting film. Effectively a mockumentary, though shot in a documentary style void of any real ‘mockery’ in a way so realistic and so rigidly held to the conventions of a documentary that after a while it is for all intensive purposes, a documentary, though the events that it documents are far from real.
It has some great ideas and some equally great actions sequences, but ultimately Sucker Punch is held back by a poorly implemented plot and equally poor acting. That said, if you like hot ladies, you'll probably enjoy this.
Sucker Punch is a strange film, mainly because I can’t really gauge what kind of film it is. Everything about the marketing for it portrayed a straight action film, but in the end it is much more than that, and not always in a good way.
Bit of an older one this week, and probably most everyone will have seen this but thought I’d write a little something about it anyway.
Guy Ritchie is one of those directors when you kind of know what you are going to get, though his Sherlock Holmes taking him in a slightly new and more exciting direction. Snatch, RocknRolla, Revolver; all the high-octane, gangster filled, gun ridden, cursing and maiming that anyone could ask for. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is where this all began, being Guy Ritchie’s first full length feature, and it is here that we see the origins for the majority of his later films, both good and bad. It also introduced to the world two titans of the film industry, Jason Statham and former footballer Vinnie Jones! These great casting decisions aside, Lock Stock is actually a great film, and well worth watching (if you haven’t already seen it).
