richardbrunton:Reviews: Movies

Going into Walk the Line it's fair to say I knew nothing about Johnny Cash other than the Ring of Fire song and one of my more eccentric school friends who was into his music while most other kids were reading Smash Hits and watching Top of the Pops! So I wasn't sure what to expect and how the movie would affect me, and like most of the prospective audience I was attracted by awards hype, reviews and the always strong Joaquin Phoenix.

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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Friday 27 January 2006 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

When going to see this movie there were two things that were with me as baggage walking through that darkened doorway, thankfully I managed to leave both right there allowing me to enjoy the movie. One was the animated film I saw when I was a child, and the other was the hype and associated comparisons to Lord of the Rings both by Author association and Hollywoods new found love of the trilogy.

Neither affected the viewing of the movie and I was drawn into the film from the opening scenes. I can quite honestly say that even if I had been affected by those pieces of baggage, or indeed carried some of the religious argument into the cinema, I would still have been pulled into the movie just the same.

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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Saturday 19 November 2005 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

While I was watching this movie I recognised a scene and a still photo that I had actually found on the Internet months and months ago, in fact it's so long I might even consider that it was close to a year. That's a long time I've known about Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and a long time that I've been looking forward to both Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer being onscreen together.

Both are excellent actors, one has had many poorly chosen roles, and the other has had some poorly chosen habits. With this movie I was hoping to see both had dropped their poor choices of the past and moved on to something which promised much, much more.

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Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Sunday 23 October 2005 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

I'm a big fan of Nick Park, from the days of Creature Comforts which were such a delight to watch, but his greatest creation without any doubt have been the superbly charming and hilarious couple Wallace & Gromit.

Unfortunately we've had to wait a long time to see them come to the big screen, and we've had to rely on the shorts he's produced of these amazing characters. I think that's also been a huge bonus to their allure, keeping them on a tight leash and ensuring their audience is always hungry for more. Yet this also brings a negative aspect, there's a huge fanbase for these characters, and they expect certain things from them and a certain level of quality.

Now though they've made that move to the big screen, and expanded their short adventures, bringing the focus of Aardman fully on the duo. Have they managed to do it? Well surely the scoring tells you something!

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Antikörper (Antibodies)

Saturday 27 August 2005 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

This marks the last movie in my very first Press visit to the Edinburgh Film Festival 2005, and what a movie to see as the final movie. More on my torn farewell to the festival on my own site later, but for now let's get to the review that Todd over at Twitch has been waiting for.

I was about to write how IMDB bills the movie, and then I read it. I would suggest you do not, I won't say why other than if you don't and you see this movie, it will be a richer experience for it. Basically though, the movie is about the capture of serial killer Gabriel Engel played by André Hennicke, someone the Police have been trying to catch for a very long time. A small town cop, Michael Martens played by Wotan Wilke Möhring, comes to interrogate him over the disappearance of a child from his village and makes more headway than the Detectives have. However the meeting troubles Martens, and the two characters suddenly seem not as far apart as their roles suggest.

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Voices of Iraq

Friday 19 August 2005 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

When I really got into reading blogs I had a hunger for news from Iraq, and I joined sites aplenty from Soldiers and other Western personnel to Iraqi citizens themselves, it seemed that everyone had an angle, their own agenda and frame of reference for what they saw and what happened to them. Everything seemed in some way to be partial truth, and some more partial than others. What I found the most distressing though was how all these stories were so different from the news that we were being told, the daily news we were being fed was often a world apart from what you could read from real people.

It's that feeling that has driven me to find out more about events that I'm fed by the news agencies of my country. Doesn't that sound like a comment you'd only associate with something like Aljazeera? Events such as Rwanada and 9/11. I'm not by any means some person on the fringes of society, just by reading this site you'll see I'm a normal, everday guy. Someone who just wants to know the real story, and the full story.

That's why I came to the screening of Voices of Iraq, and quite frankly I was stunned.

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Twist of Faith

Saturday 30 July 2005 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

This is probably one of the hardest documentaries I've ever watched, it really does hit you like a punch in the face and almost from the outset. I can honestly say this film had me deep in thought, uneasy, laughing and crying, and that's what a movie should do. Unfortunately this subject matter shouldn't even exist for it to be brought to people to understand through film.

This is an intimate journey alongside the family and friends of a man who has been subject to years of sexual abuse by the locally trusted Catholic Priest. It shows his attempts to come to terms with what has happened and how it affects him in later years, and not just him but his wife, his children, his family and friends, and even the others who have been abused in the past. It's one of the most powerful movies I've seen in recent years.

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Batman Begins

Sunday 10 July 2005 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (1)

There are two important lessons to be learned from this movie. One is that this is the yardstick, the meter on which to measure every comic book or graphic novel adaptation. Forget Sin City with its style over substance, this is the way it should be done.

Paul W.S. Anderson, put down the lens, step away from the camera. Read Batman: Year One, and then watch this movie. Then think about it for a while before going back to the camera.

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Bubba Ho-Tep

Sunday 1 May 2005 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

I wasn't expecting what I found with this movie. I was definitely looking forward to it, the story had me hooked. An Elvis impersonator and a man who thinks he's John F. Kennedy discover that their fellow occupants of the old folks home are having their souls stolen by an ancient Mummy. Fine, I know where I am now and it sounds like great fun, especially with the great Bruce Campbell as the Elvis character, Sebastian Haff.

So imagine my surprise when I see the movie and realise what it really is about. Of course on the face of it the movie is the above story, but that's not what it's really about. It's about how we treat the aged in our society, and how we behave when we become old. We push them away and begin to treat them again as children, as second rate failed citizens. They begin to fade away, to give up hope and any thought of living as they have done. They allow their lives to be signed off and handed over to the homes and the nurses, no longer doing anything for themselves, being spoon fed in every way. They give up.

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Kung Fu Hustle

Saturday 30 April 2005 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

I have no idea how to review this, I really don't. Let me start by telling you my experience of the movie, and we'll take it from there.

Right from the start I was under pressure to like it. The cast, the Director and everything that's already been said, not to mention that it's an Asian film and I'm a huge fan. The other reason I was under pressure was that my girlfriend loves the sun and this was the hotest day we've had in Edinburgh all year, it was the peak of a hot week, and she let me take her inside to a movie. An Asian movie no less. The cinema was empty, the two of us and the projectionist - although it was all digital so who knows if someone was there, and when the movie began I just wasn't sure.

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The Assassination of Richard Nixon

Monday 18 April 2005 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

Wow, what a film. Afterwards I can honestly say that the group who went to see it were slightly shell shocked, we were all a bit glum and sombre. However, that does not make this a bad movie, it was an excellent movie and entirely down to the superb performance of Sean Penn.

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Finding Forrester

Sunday 26 December 2004 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

I'd heard a little about this movie before and entered into watching it merely expecting to see another of Sean Connery's typical Connery performances. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that, he is a very good actor, but he always plays himself. Other than that, I had no inclination what the story was about so there was surprise from the outset seeing that the movie was starring Busta Rhymes and was set in the Bronx.

How surprised I was as this gentle and perfectly paced tale brings together two people who share a common love for writing, one is a faded writer who once had success, and the other is a new talent who faces so many obstacles in his path to let his talent shine.

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Raiders of the lost Ark

Wednesday 22 December 2004 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (1)

I remember seeing this movie when I was young, and it may well have been in the cinema with my Father, I can't quite remember (if he does, then please post the answer), anyway I do remember seeing it and being thoroughly entertained and that feeling of excitement and total fun staying with me to this very day as that is the feeling that the movie conjures up whenever I think of it.

I think a part of that is down to the fact it's a complete retake on the old serial movies combined with obvious comic book style, and that is just perfect for kids and appeals to them no end, or rather it did then!

So it was with excitement that I opened my presents on my birthday and found the boxset for the Indiana Jones Trilogy, and with even more excitement when I finally watched the first in the trilogy, Raiders of the lost Ark.

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The Incredibles

Sunday 21 November 2004 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (3)

WOW! What a movie. I can honestly say this is in my top ten movies of all time, how do Pixar continue to out do themselves at every movie release?

The Incredibles is a fantastic story, wonderfully scripted and with the most stunning animation you have ever seen, it provides a perfectly rounded story with plenty of action, laughs and (almost) tears.

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Ying xiong (Hero)

Monday 27 September 2004 | Movies - 5 Stars | Comments (0)

Interestingly for this film I walked in not knowing what the story for this would be. Usually the trailer gives everything away of the movie (see Aliens vs Predator for the entire story of the film in only one minute), however this trailer actually gave me a totally different idea from the movie. This ended up being just as bad for me as I was a bit disheartened at the beginning, but that didn't last.

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