Over January so far i've seen four films.
Most recent The Wrestler
I found out about this early last year, when i was younger i was a massive wrestling fan, and probably still am deep down... Anyway, i was well and truly excited.
Directed By Darren Aronofsky (think thats how it's spelt) made that little more special, because he usually makes strange, dark, bleak films. After seeing early pictures of Rouke in his light green tights and dyed blonde hair, i thought "wow, he looks like a mixture of The Ultimate Warrior and The Texas Tornado, this must be anything but bleak". Then reading the plot i found it was a really nice tale of an 80's/90's (my wrestling years) wrestling superstar who has fallen down to wrestling in school gyms for next to nothing (a little like Balboa). It was filmed almost like a documentary in certain scenes, showing you him preparing for fights, getting his hair dyed, going to the sun beds for a fake tan, shopping for props. The stuff you don't see and don't expect wrestlers to do.
Mickey Rouke grapped himself a golden globe for this role and he truly deserved it, he looked, sounded and fort like a wrestler. I also think Aronofsky should get massive praise, the film looked fantastic and some of the shots in the ring were superb. Plus he was completely out of his comfort zone and proved he is more than a art house director. Although his next project is called The Fighter... he might end up pigeon holeing himself.
Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire is a great simple story, one that when you say it out loud to explain it sounds quite lame. Danny Boyle did a fantastic job to keep this film interesting, to the point were he has made a great film.
I also like the fact there no recognizable faces, it's very rare you see a film of this size and not have one major name in it.
Danny Boyle is growing as a film maker, his last film Sunshine (i hasn't a big fan of) was a much bigger budget, special effects movie, which were not use to seeing him do, but brought a new side to Boyle.We are use to his really gritty British flicks. Slumdog Millionaire is more like his previous work, but looked really beautiful. I think his filming of the slums was heavily influenced by City of Gods, the shaky cameras and the colour. The style of the film was much more Hollywood, but with his own twist on it.
There were some shots that looked remarkable and the cinematographer did a super job, i can see why they did so well at the golden globes. There were many levels to the film, from the fast action of the slums, to the mounted tension of the Who wants to be a millionaire studio, and the whole film is built around a love story.
I've also seen Australia and The Spirit.
The Spirit is one of the worse films i've ever seen. I did even have high expectations for it, but it was still awful. The acting was bad, even from Scarlet Johannson who usually think is pretty decent at acting. Sam Jackson was appalling. I thought that even though the film will be poor it will look good... but it did even look good, nowhere near the standard my Sin City.
Australia was average, if not a but long. It ticked all the boxes for a pleasant viewing. Some of the post-war scene were really nice, even though they were obviously fake they still looked good. The drover (i think they call it, when they travel the cattle across Australia) scenes were very exciting and shot beautifully.
I have also seen a few dvds. Eden Lake, a gritty Brit flick about a couple that go away for the weekend and get terrorized by hoody, chavs. The film could have been a really good, but the bad acting and poor dialogue let it down. The idea though is very interesting and current, playing more on people's fears than actual scary moments. Eden Lake is very bleak and i'm not sure whether i liked it...
Pineapple Express, stupid comedy, but absolutely great fun. It's not the big funny moments that are suppose to make you laugh, it's quite silly comments you know the actors have made up on the spot.
There are more, but that will do for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment