End of The Week Post

The Adventures of Tintin - 2011 directed by Steven Spielberg
9/10

 The comics were childhood favourites of mine, so I was rather nervous when the cinematic adaptation was announced, but with time more information about the project emerged and I began to look forward to it. Peter Jackson producing, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish scripting it, Andy Serkis etc...
It has certainly proved to be extremely divisive, with most hardcore fans of the source material hating it. I however thought it was the best possible adaptation that could have come from the comics. It had a fantastic group of people behind it and they succeeded admirably.
It was far more similar to the books than I had expected which was very pleasing, but I felt that it did occasionally take it's action scenes to unnecessary levels, in particular the "crane fight" scene, which was very over the top. But apart from that, and Captain Haddock's accent which got slightly irritating after a while, the film was a complete success in my opinion.

End Of The Week Post

Films seen this week:

Pusher - 1996 directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
8/10

Refn is one of the most interesting directors of his generation and while Drive may very well prove to be his breakthrough film, he has been making quality films ever since 1996.
Pusher was Refn's first film and a minor success, it tells the tale of a small time drug pusher operating in Copenhagen who as a result of an unfortunate chain of events finds himself in enormous debt to his providers. His life is at stake while he desperately tries to gather the sum he owes. It is a downward spiral through and through and whilst the outcome is obvious from the start, it is nonetheless a fascinating watch. At first the handheld, gritty style was off putting, but as the film went on I grew to appreciate the films other aspects. It is a story ade up of very familiar elements, yet I still thought it brought a certain freshness to the gangster genre.

Day Of The Samurai 4: 13 Assassins - 2011

13 Assassins is the greatest Samurai film to have been released recently. Not only is it a brilliant hearkening back to the glory days of the genre, but it is also one of the very best films to have been released this year.

13 Assassins was not a financial success in the West, but it's reception from film buffs and critics alike was almost unanimously positive. It literally came out of nowhere and took the various film festivals by storm, I did not know what to expect when I first saw it, as Miike is well known for his unpredictable nature. But fortunately it was a very straightforward hearkening back to the Golden Age of Samurai films, as a fan of the genre, I loved it.

Return To Blogging.

I've been meaning to post this for ages and it's just been getting longer and longer. So don't bother reading this if your not interested, I'm mainly doing it so as to keep track of all the films I watched anyway...


X Men First Class - 2011 directed by Matthew Vaughn
4/10
Of course due to my dislike for superhero films in general, I was not expecting to love this film. But the all around high praise it received did lead me to expect a certain level of quality. Unfortunately I found the film to be most disappointing.
Matthew Vaughn is a talented director, and all the cast have done some great work previously, but for me this film just failed completely. The praise it receives completely mystifies me.

Blockbuster Review: Conan The Barbarian 2011

After the pleasant surprise of the last Hollywood blockbuster I watched and review, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes, we return to yet another wholly unnecessary, entirely awful re-imagining of an 80's classic.

Conan the Barbarian was directed by Marcus Nispel, who is mainly known for a couple of reimaginings of classic horror films and the very poorly received Pathfinder. And was written by an assortments of writers, all of which have pretty terrible scripts to their names.
It stars Jason Momoa as the titular character, as well as Rose McGowan, Ron Perlman and Stephen Lang.

The original Conan The Barbarian was by no means a great film, and certainly wasn't a particularly successful one as it failed in it's aim to launch the heroic fantasy genre into mainstream cinema and only succeeded in propelling Arnold Shwarzenegger into a career full of terrible action films.

But at least that film had aims to speak of, and fulfilled a purpose of sorts (whether it was a good purpose is a matter of opinion of course), but this remake is nothing more than an enormous waste of money in the worst possible kind of way.

New-to-me Directors': Pedro Almodovar

Women On The Verge of Nervous Breakdown is the first Almodovar film I have seen.
Which means I've finally decided to remedy what was a pretty obvious flaw in my film knowledge, by delving into the work of Spains' most acclaimed modern director.
I can't say why my attention fell on this film in particular, but I needed a place to start and Women On The Verge Of Nervous Breakdown certainly had an intriguing title.

 

I was very impressed, with this film Almodovar has crafted what is essentially a romantic comedy in such an original, amusing and energetic way that I immediately decided to seek out more of his work.
Talk To Her was the next I saw of his, and was even more impressed by his handling of a far more serious and dramatic plot, though not without it's humourous moments. But this review concerns my first experience with his work, so I will try to keep Talk To Her out of it and focus only on the marvelous little film that is Women On The Verge of Nervous Breakdown.