Monday, September 5, 2011

The Week In Movies (28/8/11 - 4/9/11)

Anyone else having trouble with the blogger scheduling feature? I had to wake up to post this! It's making me want to break something! EDIT: Apologies for the spam in your readers. I can't criticise this scheduler enough.

Can you believe it's September already? Spring has well and truly begun in Perth, the sun has been out, I've been wearing shorts to work and my mind has drifted on to the outdoor cinema season once more. Oh how I love outdoor cinema. But more on that as soon as programs are released.

This week I have re visited 3 movies, reviewed 4 movies, turned off 2 movies and signed up for a Twitter account at last. First up the 4 movies there will be full reviews for.


3-Iron was loved and reviewed here, inspiring Tyler at Southern Vision to bump it up his queue. Fast Five was delicious cheese and reviewed here. The Maltese Falcon is this weeks Noir-a-Thon movie and will be coming on Tuesday as always and Everything Must Go should be reviewed by Wednesday. Something to look forward to.

That only leaves three more films that I finished this week.


Thor. I've been working on some nicknames for this. Bore. Yorn (pronounced yawn.) Not very inventive are they? About as inventive and interesting as the actual movie. I kept telling Leah to turn it off but neither of us did, instead reading interesting blogs such as Film Ha-Ha and The Great Movie Project with Thawn in the background. I appreciate Portman, Dennings and Skarsgard but everything, including the normal posters, is just so dull. That alternative poster commissioned by Marvel is pretty awesome though right?

Rewatching Shallow Grave this week prompted my Ewan McGregor list but could easily have prompted a Danny Boyle list. I loved it. I saw it a long time ago as a wee pup of a film viewer and Leah had never seen it. She always gets a kick out of seeing Dr Who in other things. I wish she didn't have that association as Christopher Eccleston is such a good actor. Anyone see the brilliant BBC series Shadowline recently? An enjoyable low budget British thriller from a soon to be huuuuge director starring one great, one pretty good and one mediocre actor. Watch Kerry Fox closely, her accent travels the globe. I must ask, how did she get cast? Hels at A Whole Load of Blah recently picked it as the best movie of 1994.

And then to Buried. A movie about a guy in a box. I loved the idea and if anyone was going to have the charisma to pull it off it was going to be Ryan Reynolds (I love watching him, I admit it, I haven't sunk to Green Lantern levels yet however.) I never really got in to this one though. It was interestingly filmed, I love the purpose built really tall casket story for example and Reynolds was good at being upset but I ended up not caring about him or his situation. A bad thing for a movie about a guy in a box on a mobile phone. Brian saw it and thought it was a horror and Stevee thought it was her fantasy come true.

This weeks blahblahblah turnoffs are two teeny tiny Ellen Page movies that I thought I would give a shot as Page is great to watch. However it is a shame the same couldn't be said for The Tracey Fragments and Mouth to Mouth. Tracey Fragments is a great idea, a young girl is traumatised by something and we experience the movie in flashback as she pieces together her memories of the event. The problem is that the story is told with multiple shots simultaneously and even multiple dialogue at times, representing her memories coming together; which causes your head to hurt and you to lose a lot of important information. Another problem is that it's noisy, which gives you a headache. Movies shouldn't give headaches. Mouth to Mouth is such a cheap and horrible and dull movie I have nothing good to say about it.

Leave me some blah, I'd love to know what you think of my turnoffs this week, that awesome Thor poster and whether you are as excited at the thought of trapping Ryan Reynolds in a casket as Stevee is?


16 comments:

  1. apologies if that spammed your google readers but honestly i could have quite easily thrown my mac out the window this morning and gone to live in a cave somewhere.

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  2. Hi Toby, I actually just added Everything Must Go on my Netflix queue a few minutes ago, curious to see that one. It kinda reminds me of Farrell's role in Stranger Than Fiction in that it's more than just silly slapstick stuff. Plus I like Rebecca Hall.

    As for the Buried poster, I think it looks Hitchcockian cool, but no, Reynolds doesn't do anything for me so I'm not as excited as Stevee :D

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  3. Hey ruth - it was an enjoyable movie, I hope you come back for my review after you've seen it.

    You're right about the BURIED poster, its probably my favourite thing about that movie too. Both that and the THOR one are obviously influenced by the hitchcock posters.

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  4. Didn't like Thor? Okay, I'll go with that, maybe it wasn't your cup of tea.

    Didn't like Buried? WTF? Seriously, one of the best single-set genre films I've ever seen!

    And Ellen Page just annoys me - I thought she was okay in Juno, and badly cast in Whip It, to name two films I've seen her in.

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  5. rodney - i'm quite amazed that anyone thinks anything good about THOR. you liked it?

    BURIED on the other hand i do understand the appeal, maybe i wasn't in the right mood but personally i certainly didn't care either way if he got out of the box.

    As for ELLEN PAGE i can see why people find her annoying but i find her interesting, the female Michael Cera infact; sort of the same character every time but pretty much always enjoyable. You didn't like INCEPTION or SUPER?

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  6. I really liked BURIED but I think it's the kind of film you only watch once. I haven't seen any of your turnoffs, but once considered renting THE TRACY FRAGMENTS.

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  7. tyler - i actually think TRACEY FRAGMENTS is worth seeing/attempting just for it's unique style of editing. it's almost a reverse Russian Ark.

    there's a story about the promotion for the film, they made all of the footage available online and ran a competition to find the best/most interesting/unique way of using it.

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  8. Strange I've never had any problem with scheduling posts. Hopefully it isn't a widespread issue.

    Also I agree with Rodney, Ellen Page annoys me too. I think it's partly her voice and that she reminds me of someone I used to know.

    Also is there any chance you'd consider removing the word verification required to post a comment here?

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  9. Wow, you've certainly caught my attention with the reverse Russian Ark analogy. I'll give it another look.

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  10. BT - it was working again this morning. Hopefully a temporary glitch/user error.

    Its never good to be reminded or people you dislike in real life when watching a movie. I wish I could think of think of an example of my own but my memory is taking the day off it seems.

    I apologise for the word verification, I thought I'd already selected to turn it off. I'm not a fan of them for blogs. I'll get on it asap.

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  11. Tyler - I had to go back and read my comment incase I'd sleep commented something inappropriate this morning. But no I stand by it. It will probably require you not hating ellen page though.

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  12. You didn't like Thor? It was very light but I thought it was entertaining enough. Looking forward to your Everything Must Go review!

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  13. castor - i'm extremely hard to please when it comes to hollywood films these days. for me to get them they either have to be so silly or brilliant. everything must go is up early for some reason (thanks again blogger scheduler!)

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  14. I think even with Buried being a bit mediocre it has to get props for being at least somewhat entertaining, since it's one guy in a box for an hour and 20 minutes!

    Reynolds really doesn't do it for me though, he's very puppy-like.

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  15. Toby, check that you have the correct Time Zone selected in your settings.

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  16. 5plitreel - i know. it's worth watching. thats why i did. i just couldn't enage. in no way am i suggesting it should be consigned to the worlds turnoff bin.

    BT - checked that and it was correct. very strange. i think it might be the new interface. i may have to set my geolocation or something. if i set the date for 7th september and it posts 6th september that can't be a timezone thing surely as i'm ahead of almost the whole world time wise.

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