We step up the pace this week with the action thriller;
Bad Company.
To be fair, there is a good sprinkling of comedy too. As there should be, with Chris Rock taking a starring role, he just can't help being funny.
Rock stars alongside Anthony Hopkins in this espionage thriller.
This movie takes aspects of good action films such as; Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and The Matrix and spins them into tangled web of espionage, arms dealing, kidnap, double crossing and car chases.
The problem is, it doesn't really work as a whole, it's a watered down version of other great films of this genre. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it's just not great. It will keep you on the edge of your seat for a bit, it will make you laugh and it has a feelgood ending. (Has that spoilt it for you?)
The story itself opens with CIA operative Kevin Pope (Chris Rock) brokering an arms deal with a Russian mafia boss. Along with his partner, CIA Officer Oakes (Anthony Hopkins) they attempt to buy a rogue nuclear device before it gets into the wrong hands.
The problem is there are others after the device and within five minutes of the movie starting, there's a gun battle with the two sides vying to buy the bomb. In the ensuing cross fire CIA agent Pope (Chris Rock) is shot dead.
This leaves the CIA with a problem, they have brokered a deal, but their contact is now dead. Enter Chris Rock! Who also plays Kevin Pope's unknown twin brother; Jake Hayes.
Hayes teams up with Oakes, after some gentle persuasion and impersonates his brother so that the CIA can complete their mission, or so they think.
What follows is the double crossing, car chases gun battles etc.
This goes on for a long middle section of the film. Indeed, it goes on so long, that it may leave you bored. A bit of pruning from the Editors scissors, would not have gone amiss.
All in all it was a good film, but as I said; not great. The interplay between Rock and Hopkins wasn't great, in fact Hopkins was fairly mediocre. Whilst Chris Rock was fairly damn good.
If you get a chance to see it, give it a whirl, if not don't lose any sleep over it. There are better films out there.
Tuesday, 25 October 2011
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
The Bucket List - 18th October 2011
Here we are again then, happy as can be......... Well, as happy as the last batch of films has made us, and as they have been hard hitting thrillers, that isn't too happy, is it?
So to a change of mood tonight, a change of pace, a change of direction. I initially said tonight's film was a comedy, but after seeing it, I'm not so sure. Maybe a tragi-comedy. Whatever, the film was the absolutely brilliant;
The Bucket List
The Bucket List follows the story of two terminally ill men, from different backgrounds, stuck together in the same hospital room, battling their illness. Although from completely different backgrounds, they soon form a bond, bought together by their individual cancers.
After several highs and lows in the hospital, the idea of a bucket list forms; a list of things to do before they kick the bucket.
Jack Nicholson plays the corporate billionaire Edward Cole, whilst Morgan Freeman plays the humble backstreet mechanic, Carter Chambers.
After hatching the plan to carry out the items on their joint bucket list, they leave the hospital and with reliance on Cole's millions jet off around the world doing the things that they have always wanted to do, for instance; go sky diving, drive classic cars, go on safari, see the wonders of the world.
However, it's not the so-say easy things that they set out to do, that makes this film, it's the obscure things, like; help a complete stranger, laugh until you cry, or kiss the most beautiful girl in the world. (Watch out for that last one, it's a killer and I defy even the most stone hearted individual not to feel a pang of emotion).
The Bucket List takes the most heart wrenching of situations and turns it into an uplifting and rewarding story.
Jack Nicholson is absolutely superb, as the cold hearted Edward Cole and Morgan Freeman is in tip top form as Carter. Special note should be made too, for Sean Hayes who plays Thomas, Edwards Coles' much maligned personal assistant, who gives as good as he gets, in a very polite manner.
The Bucket List will go down as one of our favourite Tuesday Night is Film Night films. It will hav you in tears of laughter and sorrow.
10 out of 10.
And can I adopt Morgan Freeman to be my Grandad?
So to a change of mood tonight, a change of pace, a change of direction. I initially said tonight's film was a comedy, but after seeing it, I'm not so sure. Maybe a tragi-comedy. Whatever, the film was the absolutely brilliant;
The Bucket List
The Bucket List follows the story of two terminally ill men, from different backgrounds, stuck together in the same hospital room, battling their illness. Although from completely different backgrounds, they soon form a bond, bought together by their individual cancers.
After several highs and lows in the hospital, the idea of a bucket list forms; a list of things to do before they kick the bucket.
Jack Nicholson plays the corporate billionaire Edward Cole, whilst Morgan Freeman plays the humble backstreet mechanic, Carter Chambers.
After hatching the plan to carry out the items on their joint bucket list, they leave the hospital and with reliance on Cole's millions jet off around the world doing the things that they have always wanted to do, for instance; go sky diving, drive classic cars, go on safari, see the wonders of the world.
However, it's not the so-say easy things that they set out to do, that makes this film, it's the obscure things, like; help a complete stranger, laugh until you cry, or kiss the most beautiful girl in the world. (Watch out for that last one, it's a killer and I defy even the most stone hearted individual not to feel a pang of emotion).
The Bucket List takes the most heart wrenching of situations and turns it into an uplifting and rewarding story.
Jack Nicholson is absolutely superb, as the cold hearted Edward Cole and Morgan Freeman is in tip top form as Carter. Special note should be made too, for Sean Hayes who plays Thomas, Edwards Coles' much maligned personal assistant, who gives as good as he gets, in a very polite manner.
The Bucket List will go down as one of our favourite Tuesday Night is Film Night films. It will hav you in tears of laughter and sorrow.
10 out of 10.
And can I adopt Morgan Freeman to be my Grandad?
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Hard Candy - 11th October 2011
Welcome to the Tuesday Night is Film Night review for;
Hard Candy
Well, what can one say........
We usually watch the fluffy, funny, rom-com's and chick flicks type films. After all it is a family film night.
Hard Candy was never going to be fluffy.
Hard Candy is; a hard hitting, suspenseful thriller. It's gripping, you can't tear yourself from it. It isn't however, edge of the seat stuff, it's behind the sofa and peek with one eye stuff!
And how do they achieve this suspense? With some superb acting. Some great camera work, but not much in the way of incidental music to set the mood. The intensity of the drama comes from the screen in the form of dialogue and visual cues. Incredible, powerful stuff.
As always, we will thinly describe the plot, not to give too much away.
Ellen Page plays Hayley Stark, a troubled, but mature 14 year old, who bumps into a thirty-two year old photographer; Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson), in an internet chat room. They get talking, with Jeff leading Hayley on somewhat. After several weeks of chatting, they decide to meet up in a local coffee shop. After some flirting from Hayley, they continue their meeting at Jeff's house.
This is where the trouble starts.........
What follows is a fairly harrowing portrayal of torture with physical and mental abuse, but with a twist.
What makes this film so intriguing, is that for the main, the action takes place in one location, with just two actors on screen. Ellen Page is phenomenal in her portrayal of Hayley Stark, who is quite clearly a psychotic teenager, intent of the mental torture of the not so innocent Jeff. For his part, Patrick Wilson puts in a great performance, also.
Very gripping. Very tense. Very good.
I'm sleeping with one eye open tonight!
Hard Candy
Well, what can one say........
We usually watch the fluffy, funny, rom-com's and chick flicks type films. After all it is a family film night.
Hard Candy was never going to be fluffy.
Hard Candy is; a hard hitting, suspenseful thriller. It's gripping, you can't tear yourself from it. It isn't however, edge of the seat stuff, it's behind the sofa and peek with one eye stuff!
And how do they achieve this suspense? With some superb acting. Some great camera work, but not much in the way of incidental music to set the mood. The intensity of the drama comes from the screen in the form of dialogue and visual cues. Incredible, powerful stuff.
As always, we will thinly describe the plot, not to give too much away.
Ellen Page plays Hayley Stark, a troubled, but mature 14 year old, who bumps into a thirty-two year old photographer; Jeff Kohlver (Patrick Wilson), in an internet chat room. They get talking, with Jeff leading Hayley on somewhat. After several weeks of chatting, they decide to meet up in a local coffee shop. After some flirting from Hayley, they continue their meeting at Jeff's house.
This is where the trouble starts.........
What follows is a fairly harrowing portrayal of torture with physical and mental abuse, but with a twist.
What makes this film so intriguing, is that for the main, the action takes place in one location, with just two actors on screen. Ellen Page is phenomenal in her portrayal of Hayley Stark, who is quite clearly a psychotic teenager, intent of the mental torture of the not so innocent Jeff. For his part, Patrick Wilson puts in a great performance, also.
Very gripping. Very tense. Very good.
I'm sleeping with one eye open tonight!
Firewall - 4th October 2011
Yet again we wander off into the wonderful world of film. Tonight we move to a crime thriller, starring Harrison Ford from 2006 it's;
Firewall
The story of this movie is that bank security expert; Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) is made to "break into" the bank that he has kept secure for the last 20 years. However, this is not a bank vault cash heist, instead this is a credit transfer, made by hacking into the banks' computer system.
Right let's just stop here to make a point, I do not like films where the computer systems shown are unrealistic, not believable and clearly a figment of somebody's imagination. Firewall is not in this league, the desktop and laptops seen are Dell machines, running Windows XP. The servers seen in the banks server room are Dell machines also, in proper server racks and everything. For this and this alone, Firewall gains some serious kudos, with me at least.
Carying on with the plot.
Early on in the film, Jacks' family are kidnapped by the gang, masterminded by Bill Cox, played brilliantly by the English actor Paul Bettany (Silas in The Da Vinci Code).
From here our hero Jack is forced to comply with their demands and ensure the transfer of monies is made from the bank, to the gangs' offshore account.
This is not going to be as easy as first thought, as a pending merger has moved some of the physical access to the banks computer system, to an offsite location.
Bear with it!!
I know it sounds boring, but honestly it's not. If you like a bit of techie crime drama, then Firewall is worth a watch.
OK, there is one point where Jack cobbles together a fax machine and an iPod to create a screen reader, which he then plumbs into his laptop, to hook it up to some OCR software. This does drive the realms of believability off the page somewhat, but it could happen!
Are you still awake?
It's good stuff, and only a little bit far fetched, but it's a gritty, crime thriller, that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
As thrillers go, this one is a good film to watch. This one gets our seal of approval!
Firewall
The story of this movie is that bank security expert; Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) is made to "break into" the bank that he has kept secure for the last 20 years. However, this is not a bank vault cash heist, instead this is a credit transfer, made by hacking into the banks' computer system.
Right let's just stop here to make a point, I do not like films where the computer systems shown are unrealistic, not believable and clearly a figment of somebody's imagination. Firewall is not in this league, the desktop and laptops seen are Dell machines, running Windows XP. The servers seen in the banks server room are Dell machines also, in proper server racks and everything. For this and this alone, Firewall gains some serious kudos, with me at least.
Carying on with the plot.
Early on in the film, Jacks' family are kidnapped by the gang, masterminded by Bill Cox, played brilliantly by the English actor Paul Bettany (Silas in The Da Vinci Code).
From here our hero Jack is forced to comply with their demands and ensure the transfer of monies is made from the bank, to the gangs' offshore account.
This is not going to be as easy as first thought, as a pending merger has moved some of the physical access to the banks computer system, to an offsite location.
Bear with it!!
I know it sounds boring, but honestly it's not. If you like a bit of techie crime drama, then Firewall is worth a watch.
OK, there is one point where Jack cobbles together a fax machine and an iPod to create a screen reader, which he then plumbs into his laptop, to hook it up to some OCR software. This does drive the realms of believability off the page somewhat, but it could happen!
Are you still awake?
It's good stuff, and only a little bit far fetched, but it's a gritty, crime thriller, that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
As thrillers go, this one is a good film to watch. This one gets our seal of approval!
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
The Woodsman - 27th September 2011
So after our little week off last week we are back! I'd like to say back with a bang, but I'm sorry to say that this week's offering was more of a damp squib.....
The Woodsman.
So, Kevin Bacon stars in this really very dark movie. Walter (Bacon), a convicted paedophile, serves his twelve year sentence, then after release tries to get back to some kind of normality, whilst fighting his mental demons.
And that's about the long and the short of the story. That's what it's about, there's nothing much to it. There's a love interest and there's some distraction when he spies another paedophile in the neighbourhood, but that is all.
I don't think I can eulogise much over the film, the story was extremely dark. The subject matter is abhorrent. And there was little or no plot.
Having said that, the acting was really good, enough to carry the weak story through to the end.
All in all, not a great film.
IMDB had this to say;
After twelve years in prison, Walter arrives in an unnamed city, moves into a small apartment across the street from an elementary school, gets a job at a lumberyard, and mostly keeps to himself. A quiet, guarded man, Walter finds unexpected solace from Vickie, a tough-talking woman who promises not to judge him for his history. But Walter cannot escape his past. A convicted sex offender, Walter is warily eyed by his brother-in-law, shunned by his sister, lives in fear of being discovered at work, and is hounded by a suspicious local police officer, Detective Lucas. After befriending a young girl in a neighborhood park, Walter must also grapple with the terrible prospect of his own reawakened demons.
The Woodsman.
So, Kevin Bacon stars in this really very dark movie. Walter (Bacon), a convicted paedophile, serves his twelve year sentence, then after release tries to get back to some kind of normality, whilst fighting his mental demons.
And that's about the long and the short of the story. That's what it's about, there's nothing much to it. There's a love interest and there's some distraction when he spies another paedophile in the neighbourhood, but that is all.
I don't think I can eulogise much over the film, the story was extremely dark. The subject matter is abhorrent. And there was little or no plot.
Having said that, the acting was really good, enough to carry the weak story through to the end.
All in all, not a great film.
IMDB had this to say;
After twelve years in prison, Walter arrives in an unnamed city, moves into a small apartment across the street from an elementary school, gets a job at a lumberyard, and mostly keeps to himself. A quiet, guarded man, Walter finds unexpected solace from Vickie, a tough-talking woman who promises not to judge him for his history. But Walter cannot escape his past. A convicted sex offender, Walter is warily eyed by his brother-in-law, shunned by his sister, lives in fear of being discovered at work, and is hounded by a suspicious local police officer, Detective Lucas. After befriending a young girl in a neighborhood park, Walter must also grapple with the terrible prospect of his own reawakened demons.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
The Time Traveler's Wife - 13th September 2011
This week we head back to the soppy chick-flick genre!
The Time Traveler's Wife.
Eric Bana stars as Henry, a man with a strange so-called genetic disorder, which manifests itself erratically, causing Henry to disappear and travel in time.
A strange concept, but an interesting one, especially when you consider that the basic thread throughout the film is a love story.
How a time travelling man can fall in love with a non time travelling woman, makes for an interesting time for Clare played by Rachel McAdams.
She first meets Henry, when she is a 6 year old girl and he appears in the meadow where she is having a picnic, Henry, as always, appears from nowhere, without any clothes, he hides behind a bush, to hide his modesty.
We don't see this meeting, until they have already met. Confused?
The first on screen meeting is when Henry is working as a Librarian and Clare, now older, bumps into him. She has known Henry since she was six and has been meeting him on and off for several years, although as he has not yet been to the times and places where they have met before. Still confused?
Yes, it can be a little confusing, but it's well worth sticking with it, as the story that follows Henry and Clare is gripping and fast moving, without being overwrought and too complicated. The addition of family and friends, who know and don't know about Henry's travelling, further adds to the plot, making for a series of twists and turns in a thoroughly entertaining movie.
The Time Traveler's Wife.
Eric Bana stars as Henry, a man with a strange so-called genetic disorder, which manifests itself erratically, causing Henry to disappear and travel in time.
A strange concept, but an interesting one, especially when you consider that the basic thread throughout the film is a love story.
How a time travelling man can fall in love with a non time travelling woman, makes for an interesting time for Clare played by Rachel McAdams.
She first meets Henry, when she is a 6 year old girl and he appears in the meadow where she is having a picnic, Henry, as always, appears from nowhere, without any clothes, he hides behind a bush, to hide his modesty.
We don't see this meeting, until they have already met. Confused?
The first on screen meeting is when Henry is working as a Librarian and Clare, now older, bumps into him. She has known Henry since she was six and has been meeting him on and off for several years, although as he has not yet been to the times and places where they have met before. Still confused?
Yes, it can be a little confusing, but it's well worth sticking with it, as the story that follows Henry and Clare is gripping and fast moving, without being overwrought and too complicated. The addition of family and friends, who know and don't know about Henry's travelling, further adds to the plot, making for a series of twists and turns in a thoroughly entertaining movie.
Tuesday, 6 September 2011
Four Lions - 6th September 2011
This weeks Tuesday Night is Film Night film is;
Four Lions
Four Lions is a British comedy written and directed by Christoper Morris (better known for such comedy TV shows as; The Day Today, Brass Eye and appearing in The IT Crowd).
It portrays the story of four haphazard, incompetent British jihadists who are training for and plotting an act of terrorism.
It took a while for the film to get going, the comedy is dark but infrequent for the first half of the film, so it was a little disappointing in that respect. However, after halfway the comedy increases, although the subject matter is dark.
There is one absolutely wonderful piece, that alone will make it worthwhile watching the whole film. Obviously, I can't tell you what that is, but it's a cracker.
The film does cover the tricky subject of suicide bombing, so prepared for some bodily explosions! Although not graphically gory they are, dare I say it, very funny.
So all in all the film was disappointing, we didn't find it as funny as perhaps it could have been or as funny as some reviews might make you believe. Although there are some very good moments. Including an appearance from Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) playing a Police negotiator.
If you like the work of Chris Morris, then you would probably have already seen this film, if not then watch it.
Otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much.
Four Lions
Four Lions is a British comedy written and directed by Christoper Morris (better known for such comedy TV shows as; The Day Today, Brass Eye and appearing in The IT Crowd).
It portrays the story of four haphazard, incompetent British jihadists who are training for and plotting an act of terrorism.
It took a while for the film to get going, the comedy is dark but infrequent for the first half of the film, so it was a little disappointing in that respect. However, after halfway the comedy increases, although the subject matter is dark.
There is one absolutely wonderful piece, that alone will make it worthwhile watching the whole film. Obviously, I can't tell you what that is, but it's a cracker.
The film does cover the tricky subject of suicide bombing, so prepared for some bodily explosions! Although not graphically gory they are, dare I say it, very funny.
So all in all the film was disappointing, we didn't find it as funny as perhaps it could have been or as funny as some reviews might make you believe. Although there are some very good moments. Including an appearance from Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) playing a Police negotiator.
If you like the work of Chris Morris, then you would probably have already seen this film, if not then watch it.
Otherwise, I wouldn't worry too much.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)