CAPTAIN AMERICA THE WINTER SOLDIER

Captain America’s first cinematic outing left our hero stranded out of his time in the modern world. Winter Soldier continues this theme with the Captain finding it difficult to adjust to the complicated power plays and politicking of the modern age. I confess that although I really enjoyed Captain America the First Avenger I wasn’t sure how the character would fit in in the modern world (the Avengers was more an ensemble piece). One thing you will quickly notice when watching this film is that it is not simply a parade of action scenes with some occasional dialogue thrown in, instead the story and characters are given room to breathe and both benefit as a result. Believe it or not this approach also helps the film’s action credentials, by spacing these sequences out it means the when the fists, feet (and shield) start to fly then the audience is all the more eager for it . The climactic battle scenes are a good deal more exciting when you haven’t been battered by more of the same for the last hour. An extremely well written script with intelligent dialogue is another weapon in the film’s arsenal. The character’s fears and motivations sit comfortably with technobabble about codes and computer chips. This, coupled with strong performances from the entire main cast, gives you a film that for all of its fantastical elements, ring true to a very large extent. It should of course be noted that as this film exists in the middle of the Marvel universe it does not lend itself to a one off viewing, in other words if you haven’t seen other films in the franchise you might be at a bit of a loss. Another issue is that on the film’s main plot twists, which is revealed with much fanfare, has been known to comic book fans for some time and therefore might lack some bite (my thanks to the enthusiastic comic book fan who ruined this for me a clear six months before the first trailer was even out). On the whole though these are minor nit-picks and this is a thoroughly entertaining and well-made film. Final verdict 9/10

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Unknown 04:51  No comment

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

It takes a great deal of skill and effort to pull off surrealist comedy. It is not, as some suppose, a simple matter of making characters say and do strange things. In the case of the Grand Budapest Hotel director Wes Anderson makes the entire world as strange and visually distinct as the characters that inhabit it. The titular hotel is filled with bright distinctive colours that mark the hotel in sharp contrast to the comparatively colourless (if still visually interesting) world outside its doors. Anderson then populates this abode with larger than life eccentric figures Ralph Fines being the central one. Newcomer Tony Revelori makes a good first impression as Zero the lobby boy through whose eyes the audience experiences much of the madness. His character is by nature very deadpan for a lot of the film and it will be interesting to see him in roles that allow a little more emotional expression, but from what we’ve seen here he shows promise. Other roles in the film are filled by well-known faces like Edward Norton, William Daefoe and Owen Wilson; whilst these performances are fine by themselves it might turn some off the film- as some pretentious celebrity-filled mush. This would be a great mistake, Grand Budapest is very funny with a witty script and both laugh out loud and more subdued humour. More serious scenes with a slightly more sombre tone manage to meld in well due to skilful writing and direction. One of the many highlights is a successful wrong footing of the audience that, though short, catches you off guard. My one complaint is a rather clunky framing story that feels needlessly convoluted and could have been trimmed down Final verdict 8/10 Highly entertaining.

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Unknown 08:29  No comment

300 RISE OF AN EMPIRE

SYNOPSIS –The fight to free Greece from Persian tyranny continues I find myself in a bit of a tough spot with this one, reviewing 300 Rise as a normal film would be folly, and yet that is the entire purpose of this blog. When I say that 300 Rise is not a ‘normal film’, my precise meaning is that what we have here is highly entertaining music video that coincidently has some dialogue in it. Of course this should not be any real surprise to any fans of the original slaughter-fest. One of the reasons this sequel (sidequel really since the action takes place in the same time period as the first film) is that it takes the action and moves it to a new setting at sea. This might not sound like much, however, it’s not like we’re dealing with Shakespeare here and the filmmakers clearly know their audience is turning up for action not artistic camera shots. Another gem in the film’s entertainment value is its unintentional humour, it is almost impossible to dislike a film that features the line “Leonidas was betrayed by a hunchback” said with straight faced seriousness. Combine this with what I can only describe as the funniest sex scene I’ve seen in a mainstream movie and slow motion action shots of heroes gritting their teeth lusting for battle (or perhaps passing a stone) and you have a lot of entertainment value. Now I am not calling this a good film by any means ,the dialogue is ridiculous, the characters are wafer thin and the ending holds the possible dread of a third film. In cases like these though you have to ask the Maximus question “Are you not entertained” and well though the gods of cinema might damn me, I was Final verdict 6/10 don’t go if you want deep dialogue, do go if you want dumb fun.

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Unknown 08:26  No comment

NON STOP

SYNOPSIS –An Air Marshal finds himself being manipulated and threatened by one of the passengers on his plane. If you want to put your characters in a closed-off space which will breed tension and distrust then you can’t do much better than an airplane. This is where Air Marshal Bill Marks (Liam Nesson) finds himself after being informed by text that a passenger will die every 20 minutes unless demands are met. This is an effective set up and, for the most part, the film makes good use of it. It should bluntly be stated that one of the main points the film has in its corner is Neeson himself. His character might be the usual suspect when it comes to this kind of film (i.e. a drunk, washed up) but Neeson is able to play these roles with enough sincerity to make the audience still buy into it. Other actors in this position might have been tempted to sleepwalk through a role that’s not exactly the most original in the history of cinema. The other area the film works best at is in building tension - the use of text messages to communicate keeps the perpetrator as a malevolent, faceless entity. The ‘ding’ of the text alert actually becoming sinister as it heralds new malicious instructions. The identity of the perpetrator is also a good twist, not iron clad that you will never spot this, but still quite good. The real problem comes in the third act, it’s almost as though having built up all this tension they can’t quite seem to figure out what to do with it. So we fall back on the same action movie clichés (complete with requisite one liner) that lets the film down. When the time comes to reveal the big master plan and the reason behind, the reason is a bit flat and not particularly original. FINAL VERDICT 6/10 it’s a good setup but lets itself down in the last act.

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Unknown 06:16  2 comments

THE BOOK THIEF

SYNOPSIS –a young girl struggles to find freedom under the Nazi regime The film’s main assets are its performances - not that the story is weak - just that strong performances help it run more smoothly. Sophie Nelisse gives a very compelling performance as the titular heroine, Rosa, but a strong performance also comes from Nico Liersch as her childhood friend Rudy. Both Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson give strong individual performances as Sophie’s step parents, sharing a believable on-screen dynamic as a married couple. Some problems with the film might lie in what was kept and brought over from the source material. Book adaptations are tricky things, deciding what to keep and what to leave out. Some concepts after all are difficult to translate to the screen. The Book Thief, for example, is narrated by “Death” himself, a difficult concept to bring to the screen. To its credit, having decided to include this tricky narration, the film uses it as effectively as it can. The fact remains, however, that the mystical voice of Death (though played effectively by Roger Allam) sits uncomfortably with the otherwise brutally realistic tone the film strives for. The filmmakers do use their setting very effectively; the sight of school children in Nazi uniform is definitely a provocative one that does not fail to create an emotional reaction in the audience. Rather than go into cliché groups of anti-Nazis vs die-hard believers, we instead get well-rounded three dimensional characters who ring true in the environment they are put in. This works best with the young idealistic Rudi who is not only a loyal friend and confident but for most of the film a firm believer in the regime FINAL VERDICT 7/10 on the whole the film provides a moving emotional journey and gives us characters we can connect with

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Unknown 06:03  No comment