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The Shape of Things to Come, III
Of those mentioned six months ago; I didn't watch Fantastic Four or The Dukes of Hazzard as they looked awful, I saw Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire and King Kong and thought they were so-so and I saw The Island, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Serenity and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and liked them all. A Scanner Darkly seems to have slipped into a Summer 2006 release so hopefully I'll get to see that in a few months. →
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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Let's get this out of the way at the start; yes, this film has a Christian analogy in it, and no, it doesn't matter. Impressionable children are unlikely to notice or be affected by it (which is more or less how it was with the books), and impressionable adults will have made their minds up about the whole thing already anyway, so it's all OK. Relax, Mrs. Toynbee. Breathe. →
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Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire
During the closing scenes of this film, Lord Voldemort is reborn. It's the turning point of the whole saga --- the point at which it stops being all about Harry and his little adventures and becomes about stopping this great evil from regaining power. As I sat in the cinema, surrounded by hushed teenagers and frightened children, and saw Voldemort's form regrow itself from darkness and pain, I looked upon this evil creature's face and thought "Voldemort's got no nose. How does he smell? Terrible!", and it was then I began to suspect that I wasn't really getting into the spirit of things. →
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Serenity
If you hadn't ever seen Firefly, you probably knew somebody who had. That person would have raved about the show, lamented its premature cancellation and purchased the DVD box set, insisting that you should one day sit down and watch all 13 episodes so that you, too, could understand its greatness. And if you had seen Firefly, then you probably loved it. →
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Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Films based on games, by and large, are rubbish; Super Mario Bros., for instance, or Street Fighter to name but two. A few years back, Square tried to capitalise on the popularity of the Final Fantasy franchise of games with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, a feature-length CGI cut-scene that, while looking great and feeling fit, was, sadly, not very good. →
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Following
Christopher Nolan is currently in my good books. His career so far has been limited to less than a handful of films yet I've loved them all --- Memento, Insomnia and Batman Begins; all have delivered darkness, tension with just a spot of black humour where needed and I find them all hard to fault. →
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My Film Life
This post is inspired by Jeff Ignatius' My Movie Life. Jeff runs a film review website named Culture Snob and I strongly recommend you all make yourself regular readers.
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The Island
Look, I don't want to keep on about this but if the local Odeon doesn't fix their tea machine then I'm really going to get annoyed and start writing letters. Furthermore, I don't appreciate being sniggered at by a gang of pimply-faced youths when I ask for tea in the first place, as if I'm asking for a magazine off the top shelf. Wankers. →
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I had a bad feeling when I entered the cinema for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; not only were there children in the audience but the staff had run out of tea, which meant I'd had to have some sort of sickly fruit drink instead. It's as if nobody warned them I was coming. →
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War of the Worlds
The tagline for this film was 'They're already here', a reference to the fact that instead of the aliens arriving in their spaceships, they buried them on Earth thousands of years ago. Then they waited until these ships were covered in sewer systems and plumbing and electricity lines and, you know, cities, and then beamed down to break out from underneath all that concrete and London Underground and then attack. Why? I don't know. I don't think I'm supposed to. →
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The Shape of Things to Come, II
We're halfway through 2005 now, so I thought that this would be an opportune moment to look back and see what films I was looking forward to six months ago, and what I'm looking forward to now. Will I have managed to see everything I wanted to? Did they all turn out to be rubbish? Can I still enthuse about films after that awful Star Wars trilogy? Let's find out! →
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Batman Begins
This was the one I've been waiting for. Not since the original Tim Burton/Michael Keaton outing has there been a good Batman film; the franchise style has been slowly whittled away by Joel Schumacher's love of dry ice, naked male torsos and high camp. Batman Begins was to be the one that redressed the balance. Did it? →
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Sin City
It's good to know that, while watching dross like Revenge of the Sith can make you wish the Lumière brothers just hadn't bothered, there are still films like Sin City that remind you how good the medium can be. →
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Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
I wasn't going to see this film, you understand, and I don't think I could be blamed for this. After all, if you went to a restaurant twice, and on both times the waiters spat in your face and called your date a working-class whore, it's unlikely you'd go back for a third meal unless you're a masochist. Which, I suppose, I am. So, Revenge of the Sith, here I come. →
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
There is a phrase that is often used to describe a point where something is no longer worth watching. That phrase is 'jumped the shark’, and has its origins in an episode of the tedious sit-com Happy Days. During the screening of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I realised that there was room for a new phrase with a similar meaning, and that phrase is ‘switched the windscreen wipers on'. →
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Sideways
I should know better. I should learn from my experience. I should be instantly wary of any film that's received the sort of hype that Sideways has received. And yet... →
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The Ninth Doctor
Doctor Who returned last weekend after a 16--year / 9--year haitus, depending on whether you believe the failed American collaboration with Paul McGann as the Doctor existed or not. →
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Lost
I'm sure I had plans for this weekend, plans involving getting a haircut, possibly going for a walk around the Oxford Botanic Garden (if only so I could discover what a Botanic actually is), perhaps sitting in expensive cafés and quaffing pots of tea whilst discussing Parisian Beatnik poetry with anybody nearby. I was toying with the idea of investing in a new scarf or some kind of donkey jacket, but all of these plans were ruined when I woke up on Saturday morning and found I had a giant, stinking cold. →
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Ray
It's a fact that I find it easier and more enjoyable to bitch about an awful film than to sing the praises of a really good film. This is because I am, at heart, a bastard. So I find myself with a dilemma when it comes to talking about Ray Charles biopic Ray. →
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Battlestar Galactica
The original Battlestar Galactica series wasn't something I ever watched, though being a proper SF geek I was at least aware of its existence and could happily hum the theme tune if asked. I'd seen bits of it, here and there, and was not impressed. It was just so camp, so cheap, so dated. It was for this reason that when I heard that the series was to be remade, I wasn't overly bothered. →