richardbrunton:Reviews: Movies

War movies used to fall cleanly into one category, then they started getting blurry, questioning the war, those in charge at every level, and even the soldiers themselves. Reality and confusion came to them and they edged more and more towards reality rather than dramatic interpretation.

With that comes Jarhead, based on the book of the same name which explores what it was like for the soldiers during Desert Shield and what happens when soldiers undergo intense training only to be left to do nothing but...well, more training.

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Grizzly Man

Monday 13 February 2006 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (2)

The short description of this film has you from the telling, a man living with wild bears. That's all it took to have me interested, and the name Werner Herzog didn't even have an impact on that. It took a screener from one of my local cinemas, the Filmhouse, for me to finally see the documentary, and it turned out to be an interesting journey into the life of a very troubled man.

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Munich

Monday 30 January 2006 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (1)

The controversy around Munich has been apparent from its announcement, and the unusual move by Steven Spielberg to not talk about it or pamper to the Press has raised expectation and the very controversy he has sought to avoid. Then we began to hear some negative comments about it, that critics just didn't like it, and that the movie was biased towards or against one viewpoint. So as usual I approached this movie with an open mind, and my sturdy Scottish viewpoint.

First though, I have to thank Jane and Jade. The Ocean Terminal Vue Cinema were good enough to let me watch Munich in one of their excellent screens. A huge screen with one of the better sound systems in Edinburgh cinemas, and let's not even touch on my hotdog fetish that has proven they make my favourite cinema hotdogs! Anyway, after those needed thanks, back to the review.

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Match Point

Wednesday 4 January 2006 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

I'm not a big fan of Woody Allen, and I know that probably comes as a big surprise to anyone out there who is a movie journalist, writer or someone who really loves movies. It seems that you have to like Allen because there's some stigma attached to his movies that means when you stand there and have a discussion about them you are instantly recognised as intelligent and accepted into a group. Well I'm sorry, I haven't liked any of his movies.

So to be quite honest, and no disrespect to the guys at The Cameo who invited me to this Press Screening, I went down to see Match Point because I was on holiday...and it stars Scarlett Johansson. I'm sorry. Despite a few negative points something happened while I was watching, something I hadn't expected, I liked it.

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Toy Story 2

Wednesday 4 January 2006 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

I couldn't actually believe that I hadn't seen Toy Story 2 when it popped up on Television at Xmas, it seemed so long ago and since I enjoyed Toy Story so much there was no reason not to have seen the follow up. Yet I hadn't, for some strange reason it had dropped off my list of what to watch, so I sat down with a glass of something nice and red and returned to the world of toys.

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Flightplan

Tuesday 29 November 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (2)

The reviews for Flightplan in the States were harsh. Frankly after reading some of them and seeing the ratings coming out I really did wonder if Jodie Foster had made a very big mistake with her movie choice, yet I was confused, I had read that she carefully chose this script and was really keen to do it. So I went to see it courtesy of the excellent Ocean Vue at Edinburgh's Ocean Terminal, one of my favourite cinemas in Edinburgh.

So what was going on? Did the critics have it all wrong? Did this story of a woman who thinks she's lost her child on a plane in mid flight while everyone tells her otherwise just seem to preposterous? Well I went to find out and I was expecting the worst.

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Night Watch (Nochnoy dozor)

Sunday 27 November 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

There's been a lot of talk of this series from Russia, much saying that it's the country's epic to match Matrix and that kind of thing. Well those comments really did fall on their face for me, I mean Matrix is nothing to be compared against. What did interest me was the fact that this was the first big movie out of Russia that I'd heard of since...well since Bronenosets Potyomkin, and really that came about through history not through release.

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The Chumscrubber

Tuesday 22 November 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of The Chumscrubber prior to it's UK release...well actually there isn't a UK release as yet, and the US release is limited enough so that just makes me even luckier! Mainly because there won't be many UK viewings of it as yet, but also because it includes such an impressive cast as Jamie Bell, Glen Close, Carrie-Anne Moss, Ralph Fiennes, John Heard, and on, and on...

There's been a few mixed reviews pop up so far, some quite scathing, yet while I've spent days writing up posts on the Movie Blog about remakes, sequels, prequels and revisualisations, and then I see a string of new and innovative plotted movies, Chumscrubber included. Quite frankly I don't think I was watching the same movie as these reviewers.

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Where the Truth Lies

Sunday 20 November 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

There were three reasons why I wanted to see Where the Truth Lies, before I saw the trailer or heard anything more about it than the casting. Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth and the final one, Bacon and Firth together.

Bacon is a superb actor, one that entirely smothers you in his role. Firth has been typecast for a long time, and only until I had seen Trauma did I realise what he was really capable of, so I was hoping for more. Then the unique pairing of these two characters, and the setting against type, was all too much. I had to see the movie.

Luckily I was invited to a press screening for it at the fantastic, but troubled, Cameo cinema.

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Prey Alone

Saturday 24 September 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

I just caught a short movie over at Dark Matters, a site from a guy who's not unlike me in his likes and dislikes, and has a very cool site (unfortunately with no RSS Feed). I try to stop in and read Matt as much as I can, but reading over 120 sites multiple times a day by RSS Feed means it's difficult.

Anyway, I popped over today and came across a link to a short film called Prey Alone. I tried not to read his review too much as his star rating was high and he said he totally loved it. That meant I had to see it. What's more it's downloadable on that new-fangled InterWeb thing. So I did just that.

Prey Alone is a fifteen minute movie from Ireland, filled with great ideas, effects, tension and action galore.

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Wolf Creek

Saturday 10 September 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

Here's another movie that carries a tagline of Based on true events, and this concerns me, and it's been concerning me for a long time in movies. I think it's that word "based", and then seeing how much of the movie is actually real, and the thing that makes the movie better in your mind is more the fact that you're considering what you are seeing is really what happened, when it is often not.

The interesting thing about Wolf Creek is that it really pushes that statement to the outer limits of reasonable interpretation, and relies heavily on the effect the audience's mind will have on them while watching the movie and associating everything with real life. What's even more interesting is that it really does work.

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Crash

Wednesday 7 September 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (2)

Mixed reviews on the Internet, big cast, multi-angled story, to me it sounded like a few other movies that have treaded the same ground but still very interesting. The talents of Paul Haggis and the exciting casting of Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, et al, attracted me to this movie and I am thankful that I ignored what the critics have said.

The movie is a group of stories of different people that all connect through each other and all relate in some way. It's a strong story, and quite a controversial one. Large in both it's concept and it's cast. I can guess some of their negative reaction has been due to the uncomfortable feeling the movie has throughout and the very strong nature of its content. It's a difficult journey, but well worth going to see.

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Dominion: A Prequel to The Exorcist (Paul Schrader version)

Saturday 27 August 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

Having seen the second made but first to release Exorcist - The Beginning, the Renny Harlin version of the movie, I was very keen to see the original movie which the Studio saw and then scrapped, the Paul Schrader version.

This I managed to do during the Edinburgh Film Festival 2005, and actually with paid tickets I managed to even get to hear a Q&A with the Director, which in itself was extremely interesting. For now though, let's look at the movie.

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Wong gok hak yau (One Night in Mongkok)

Friday 26 August 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

Pitched as comparable to the excellent Wu jian dao (Infernal Affairs) in the Edinburgh Film Festival 2005 guide, it immediately caught my eye and I had to see it.

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Serenity

Sunday 21 August 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

For me the biggest movie to go and see at the Edinburgh International Film Festival was Serenity. Not just because of two of the most gorgeous looking women on the screen just now, Gina Torres or Morena Baccarin, but because of the excellent writing I had heard while watching the TV series from which the movie continues, Firefly.

I am not quite through the entire TV series, but I am enjoying it, yet I'm not totally hooked. The thing is for me the series is still too episodic and the big story line that runs throughout the movie, River Tam, is far too frustrating to hang in with for a long period of time. I mean her lines really are nonsensical, and I couldn't see connections except on a few episodes where she would mumble something and later in the episode you would see what she was referring to and you realised, she's not just mad. So the series didn't really hook me in enough, but still, I wanted to see the movie because it was big, a premiere, two stunning ladies are in it, and Joss Whedon's clever scripting.

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Thumbsucker

Saturday 20 August 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

I wasn't keen to go and see Thumbsucker, partly because I thought it was too close to a Hollywood movie for me, partly because I'd seen the trailer and not really fancied it, but mainly because I knew everyone was raving about it as being a great small movie and that can often turn me off. After all if there are so many people raving about it, it gets big names behind it, then is it still such a small movie?

However I took Todd's (Head cheese at Twitch) advice and I arrived early enough to get a prime centre seat. This one was once again in the main screen at the Cameo, a superb location for a movie, with one of the biggest screens I've seen this side of an IMAX.

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36 Quai des Orfèvres

Thursday 18 August 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

The second film of my EIFF experience, and here's where I have to be upfront, I am slightly peeved at the fact that this movie held me up and I missed the following A Bittersweet Life (Dal Kom Han In Saeng), but I will try my hardest to see that one on the provided videos and DVDs, and also to drop my frustrations and concentrate on the movie I saw.

It opens superbly. The way a movie should. Single shots, fades between scenes, and emotionally charged music quiet and minimal in the background. A huge widescreen shot of a fenced complex and a scream of a man highlights an out of place and jarring camera move to tell you that man is in this building, and in great pain.

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Mørke

Wednesday 17 August 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

This marks the first movie viewing for me at the Edinburgh Film Festival for 2005, and what a way to start it off.

For most of the movies I'm going to see I've followed a simple rule, read the blurb on the website and choose from there, if I want any further information maybe a quick glance at ratings (if available) on IMDB, and then the rest is up to the movie at the screening.

I'm glad I followed that rule with this movie, because it made for a much more intense experience, with some of the strongest feelings I've had from a movie for some time, barring straight jump out of your seat horror that is.

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The Descent

Sunday 7 August 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

Taglines like "the master of horror" have been banded around time and time again about many a Director or Writer, and they are sometimes right considering the genre and audience of the person the comment refers to. After all, there can be many masters depending on so many factors, particularly time. Masters come and go, and especially in Hollywood you're only as good as your last movie, or your most cult-ified movie.

Still, I watched The Descent by Neil Marshall last week and thought without a doubt that the opening line to this review should be something like..."The master of horror has arrived...and he's British". I bit melodramatic, but it gets the point across.

Without a doubt Neil Marshall is a supreme talent in horror that should not be ignored, especially by Hollywood who did just that with Dog Soldiers and is repeating it with The Descent, both of which have not had US cinema releases. It's a shame, because you're missing out a hell of a lot.

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War of the Worlds

Thursday 4 August 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (1)

I must admit that I came to this movie with some preconceptions, my image of what this would be was clouded by two names. Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise. Spielbergs tendency to be very off form of late and his desire to slap happiness all over his movies, which by the way can work really well but not in a movie about planet extermination. Then there's Cruise who, of late, has been bigger than any character he's been playing, and my fear was that seeing him on screen would bring nothing but thoughts of Cruise and his antics rather than of the character he's playing.

So walking into the cinema I wasn't prepared for the movie that I saw, and some excellent screen moments from both Cruise and Spielberg. Here they both prove that they are on better than ever form and that when needed to they can deliver the best in Hollywood. However not the same can be said for the whole film, so let's not get too full of praise straight away.

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Sin City

Thursday 30 June 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (1)

I'd never read any of the graphic novels on which this movie has been based, and I didn't even know anything about the story before hearing about the production, and right from the first trailer it had me. The names, the style, it all looked superb, so I was excited to finally see it at the cinema.

As soon as it opened I was impressed. The visuals and style were superb, and Bruce Willis seemed to be acting his socks off for this role, he suited it so well. However with the good bits came the opening poor performance from Michael Madsen, he hit the audience with a handful of cheese and struggled lines.

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Mr & Mrs Smith

Tuesday 14 June 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

It's interesting that I saw this on opening night and have since forgotten about writing a review about it, for me that says a lot about a film. You could feel it fading as you left the cinema and even talking about it with friends twenty minutes later you found each other reminding yourself about scenes.

For me that shows one of two things, the film was bad or it was pure entertainment which, although it can be enjoyable, just washes over you and lets you walk away without getting in your head and making a big impact. For Mr and Mrs Smith it was the latter.

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Broken - Alex Ferrari

Friday 20 May 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

Recently Alex Ferrari sent me a copy of the short movie he's just completed along with his co-writer/producer Jorge F. Rodriguez, called Broken. Going by the trailer I'd seen on the site I wasn't sure what to expect, it looked slick, it looked high budget, but it was cut really fast making it difficult to gleam much from it other than style. In a fifteen minute short, I guess that is to be expected of its trailer.

Ferrari is someone who comes from the conventional film making routes but became bored and disillusioned with the whole process, and I would presume industry. He turned his back on this high budget, overly engineered process and looked to see if he could make an independent movie for a small budget and still make it look and feel like a Hollywood movie.

The question is did he succeed? Well I think that's slightly unfair to ask so early on, so let's just look at the short first and then we can make a decision.

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Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Friday 13 May 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (3)

Revenge of the Sith Poster from the MovieBlog "Twenty eight years, I worked it out" said the guy next to me as we sat and waiting for the movie to start. For those of us who saw, and loved, the original Star Wars trilogy this has been a long wait, and the journey over the past few years an extremely disappointing one. So when the music began and those famous words appeared, my excitement and expectations could not have been any higher.

Firstly, let me pitch where my review is coming from. I did love the original Star Wars, and I thought that Episode I was awful, it should have been just twenty minutes of a real movie, and the excellent baddie of Darth Maul should have been made much more of. Episode II, for me, didn't fair much better, and if you asked me now what I liked, I find it hard to remember much other than the closing scene.

I've avoided the reviews, even those on the MovieBlog, and really tried to see it for what it is. Before I delve in, let me just shout out a big thanks to Craig at the Vue Cinema for inviting me to the press screening. What I'll do is try to write as generally as I can about it and then enter a spoiler thick zone, so for now, here goes with the safe to read.

The words appeared and the scrolling tomes with the music booming and the camera panned down through the stars...

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Super Size me

Wednesday 11 May 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

The problem with writing about movies all the time is that you find out so much about it before it's even finished filming, so that when you go to see it there's often an anti climax or, if there is a surprise, no surprise at all. It can be quite frustrating not to see a movie afresh and your expectations be lifted or even shattered.

The interesting thing about this movie is that it did the exact opposite, and it brought back this feeling. Within the first twenty minutes I was stunned at what was happening to this man and the facts and figures that were revealed.

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Haute Tension \ Switchblade Romance

Tuesday 3 May 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

Oh my god. Without a doubt I have not been affected by a movie this much since watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was well under age and the movie was certainly more than dodgy. I couldn't sleep after watching that and was very uneasy, multiplied a gazillion times by the imagination of a kid. This certainly had a similar affect on me, it scared me and horrified me, it even surprised me more than any other movie has of late.

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Hostage

Monday 28 March 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

The first thing that strikes you about this movie is the amazing title sequence, I don't think I've seen such an exciting and eye-catching sequence since Bullitt, and that won an award for it's titles. They are exceptional, freeze frame moments from the action that will soon open up before you, little parts of the larger situation, all with their own angle on the situation and with the cameras own angle on them. Excellent.

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We Were Soldiers

Sunday 20 March 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

Much was talked about this movie when it first came out, with the obvious comparisons made to Mel Gibson's other historical epic Braveheart, and those made me steer clear of the movie for a good while, although now I find myself wondering why after seeing it this weekend.

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Farenheit 9/11

Sunday 20 February 2005 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

Without a doubt Michael Moore is the bane of Politician's and Corporate's lives everywhere in the US. His documentaries are extremely well researched, backed up and presented. Yes, he is most guilty of presenting his side of the story and from his viewpoint, skewing things enough to let everyone get his message. Yet I've never seen something that is wrong, could be classed as lies, or doesn't need to be said. This is especially true with Farenheit 9/11.

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Tequila Sunrise

Wednesday 22 December 2004 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

I remember this movie for one real thing, the soundtrack. I bought it on vinyl and played a few songs until they were scratched, the fabulous "Do you believe in shame" by Duran Duran was one of my favourites and remains so to this day.

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The Talented Mr Ripley

Wednesday 22 December 2004 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

I watched this for the second time, and unfortunately it had lost some of its surprise that it held the first time I saw it, knowing nothing of what was about to happen. Still it struck me how excellent the cast are in this movie and how these could be well regarded amongst their best roles.

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The Frighteners

Sunday 19 December 2004 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

This is quite an unusual movie as it manages to play out over a number of styles all the while managing to keep each unique style intact and not suffering on either one.

There's a lot of comedy, undoubtedly, but there is equally as much darkness and the real feeling of death, personified in the ghostly Death like apparition. Also, apart from the stock love interest story there's real humanity with Michael J. Fox's character whose wife has died and his whole world has collapsed around him leaving him as a pretty despicable character.

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The Siege

Sunday 21 November 2004 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

I'd seen this film some time ago and forgotten about it until well into the first ten minutes. Afterwards I noticed that I had voted it a six out of ten on IMDB, but it wasn't until watching now, after the Twin Tower attacks and during the Iraq war, that it lifted itself in status for me.

It presents a lot of the feeling that is coming from the West right now towards the Islamic community, and is indeed echoing the actions of the West. Some of the comments made from the officials in the US Government earily mirror those made during this film, and not in a good way either.

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Touching the Void

Friday 5 November 2004 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

I've heard much of this documentary when it came out and even remember the talk of the actual events when the climbers returned to civilisation. The "split in the mountaineering community" was actually something I remember, so a lot more than just talk for good sales on a documentary.

The movie mixes traditional face on interviews of the three people involved in the story with beautifully filmed recreations of events. The result is a compelling, emotionally tight, and dare I say exciting film. At one point there is even some tragic comedy moments, although these are peppered lightly and the focus of the film is on the disastrous events and the choices the climbers made.

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The Hamburg Cell

Tuesday 19 October 2004 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (1)

There is no doubt about it, this is a controversial movie, and it took me a while to see it. Missing it at the Edinburgh Film Festival really got to me (I missed Hero and the Machinist too) but I managed to see it just recently.

I understand that it doesn't yet have a US\Canada release and although there have been talks, nothing has yet been signed up, and no wonder. The subject matter is focused on one of the hijackers of the September 11th Twin Towers attack. Yes. Very controversial and highly emotionally charged topic.

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Saw

Friday 15 October 2004 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

Wow! This movie was an upper and downer for me. The score was all over the place throughout the movie, and in most circumstances that is a good thing, and it is here too.

Once you've seen the entire piece you do see that the script is excellently put together, and you are left with a shed load of questions afterwards, wondering and confused but with that childish excitement of realisation.

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Collateral

Tuesday 28 September 2004 | Movies - 4 Stars | Comments (0)

A very well filmed thriller from Michael Mann who once again proves his mastery of Directing, with Tom Cruise being equalled for performance alongside Jamie Foxx. Cruise shows how good he is at portraying a bad guy, just as much as his good guy roles, if not better.

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