Film 93 - Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters - 28/10/2014

"Go get 'em Ray!"

Can you believe it? 30 years since the release of Ghostbusters!  

Three "scientists" decide to create the Ghostbusters after an experience at the library.  Trapping spooks in various locations such as The Sedgwick Hotel, they become local celebrities and are there to save the Big Apple when the time comes.

I was sat with The Film Lord, Roshtakular and a full auditorium on a Tuesday night ready for a nostalgia overload.  The cinema was full of 30-40 somethings, some bringing their kids to relive their childhood through them and you could feel the excitement in the air.  As soon as the librarian started walking through the stacks, I knew I was in good hands again, and was going to really enjoy the next few hours

I always wonder what the film would have been like if they had followed the original Dan Akroyd idea, John Belushi, Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy as the busting trio and John Candy taking on the Louis role

Cineworld had opted to show the extended special edition version of the film so there were a few scenes that were new to me, and it just looked great on the big screen.  The effects definitely do not hold up, but it doesn't matter because the characters are fantastic and the humour perfect.  Bill Murray is just a genius, 

These nights are an obvious success and I plead with Cineworld to make more of them.  Christmas Movies - Die Hard, Gremlins, Muppet's Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, or just films because they are brilliant and nostalgic.  I have not seen the cinema as full for most current blockbusters and I know that if Cineworld planned a nostalgia night once a month I would be there with many others with a smile on my face.  C'mon Cineworld, bring back the Goonies, Big Trouble in Little China, Rocky III, Back to the Future

Film 92 - The Babadook

The Babadook - 27/10/2014

"If it's in a word, or in a look

You can't get rid of the Babadook"

Made on a budget of just over $30k via a kickstarter project, Jennifer Kent's re-imaging of her short movie "Monster" is a damn good case for how good a film can be without over the top special effects.

6 years after her husband was killed taking his labour induced wife to the hospital, Amelia is struggling to raise her son.  Plagued by fears of monsters in his room, sleep deprivation is having a massive effect.  When the son asks Amelia to read him a new bed time story called Mister Babadook, things start to get worse.  With even less sleep and her son becoming more and more delusional, this seems to project towards his mother.

With no crash bang scares and loud violin screeches, The Babadook goes back to real horror, it stays away from cheap scares and gore, real horror rather than jump scares.  There were several points in this film I actually felt scared.  Is the Babadook a real entity or a figment of a delusional, sleep deprived mind?  the Babadook can be viewed from many different angles which is what made it more enjoyable for me.

The shadow in your room at night that seems to be moving, did I shut that door or leave it open, seeing things that are not there, we have all experienced these little fears and The Babadook plays on them very well.

At first I was thinking that the child actor was a little annoying and not very good, but as the film progressed I actually think he is a little insane and they did deprive him of sleep, terrify him and then asked him to act the scene again, he looks truly terrified throughout.

This is a lesson for all the big budget horror film producers out there (especially you Mr Bay and Platinum Dunes), that horror can be done well without the big effects and cheap scares.  The human mind is a scary thing that can conjure up it's own scary ideas that will always be more personally scary to each individual.  

For all the horror movie fans and people looking for a good scare this Halloween, go watch The Babadook, but don't let him in.

Baba-ba Dook Dook Dook

Film 91 - Annabelle

Annabelle - 26/10/2014

Porcelain Dolls are the scariest thing on the planet!  Why would anyone collect them?

My Aunty has a rather large collection of Porcelain dolls and every time I go to visit they scare the living heebie jeebies out of me. Their dead eyes, ghostly stare and cold skin just horrifies me

The scary parts of "The Conjuring" for me were mainly based around the doll, Annabelle, so when I saw the trailer for this prequel I was a little intrigued.  Could this be the horror film of the year, the one I have been looking for?

A young family in the 1960's are expecting their first child when they are attacked by two satanic cult members to which one of them likes the new porcelain doll the family acquired.  This is when things start to go a little weird in the household.  The doll seemingly moves location, returns after being binned and generally causing creaks and moans around the house that can only be put down to something supernatural.

The type of horror films that have been made in the last few years are all following the same style, quiet quiet quiet LOUD.  More shock horror than actual horror.  The cheap scare with a loud violin screech.  Now don't get me wrong there are a few good creepy moments in the film, one of them completely ruined by it being in the trailer, but the laziness of the bang shock is over used.

The fact the the Annabelle doll exists and is in a museum adds a little spookiness to the story, and the ending was much better than most horror films of late, but it is still not there as a great horror film, my search continues.

Film 90 - Love, Rosie

Love, Rosie - 26/10/2014

Based on the Cecelia Ahern book "Where Rainbows End", yet another chick flick hits the silver screen.

P.S I Love You is in the top chick flicks of all time for most females on the planet so Love, Rosie had a hard act to follow.  Clare had read the book a few times so was a little worried of how the screen adaptation would portray her beloved lovers.

Set over a 15 year period, Rosie and Alex are friends who have a strong attraction to each other but always seem to be at the wrong place in their lives for the next step to happen.  When Rosie falls pregnant after a one night stand and cannot follow Alex to Boston, she remains at home with her family raising her daughter.

I was not really looking forward to this one as I find most chick flicks too formulaic, but Love, Rosie seemed to ditch some of these tropes and focus more on the relationships of Rosie and Alex, not with each other but with family, friends and various "not-quite-right" partners.  Instead of having the happy relationship broken down by a new arrival of someone better, like most chick flicks, this film has breakdowns of these relationships and marriages due to infidelity and mixed feelings.

The ending was far too generic for me and could have been far better if it ended a few minutes before, but I am not a best selling novelist so what would I know.

Also, one major, major gripe I have with the film is the lack of aging.  It takes place over 12-15 years yet the characters NEVER age.  They get the occasional haircut, but the final scene has Rosie looking the same age as her high school pregnant era.  Whatever moisturiser they are using, I think they should put it on sale!

Film 89 - Take 2: Tranformers: Age of Extinction

Transformers: Age Of Extinction - 16/10/2014

How Mr Michael Bay is not on a register I do not know.

Nicola Peltz, at the time of filming is 18 going on 19, yet Mr Bay turns her into a 17 year old perv-fest with a valid law to warrant her older boyfriend, "The Romeo and Juliet Clause" that the boyfriend has laminated in his wallet.  If Bay had put half as much effort into directing a half decent film instead of researching how he can perv over the next young girl then we may get back to the Bad Boys era

Tranformers: Age of Extinction takes place after the events of a previous movie that I didn't care about and we have now left behind the screaming muppets and replaced them with Mark Walberg. Big hunks of Scrap Metal duke it out for well over 2 hours with a plot that is non-existent and a cast you couldn't care less about.

If you do end up watching this then turn it into a drinking game: 

Take a shot for every American Flag

Take a shot for every time you feel pervy

Take a shot for every big ass explosion for no reason 

...by the end of the first 10 minutes you may need a stomach pump!

Funny as well that the bad guy, who is obviously Megatron but no-one likes to say it, doesn't do anything through the film and walks into the dark at the end saying, "I'll be back" or something to that degree.  We haven't really seen you do much, so we are not really sure what you are coming back to do...more of nothing???

Oh and the dinobots you have been waiting for, turn up in the last 10 mintues of the film and do NOTHING!

Terrible film, terrible script, terrible acting and hunks of metal that are indistinguishable from each other boshing and whalloping

Absolute tripe!

Film 88 - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 11/10/2014

In a half shell, they're the heroes four

In this day and age who could ask for more?

The Crime wave is high,

with muggings mysterious

Our police force and detectives and furious

My expectations were not too high going into TMNT, with the Bay attached to the project back with his muse Megan Fox and some CG Turtles that did not look like the brothers I knew and loved.  This is probably the best way to go into this film, with low expectations, at least then you can come out and say, "Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought".  Both Clare and I said this as we left.

TMNT should have been named April O'Neill featuring some big green things for the first hour and a bit, and that is not what I came to see.  As lovely s Megan Fox was, she cannot hold a "blockbuster" on her own.  I came to see some "cowabunga" shouting dudes with ninja in their soul and weapons in their hands.

With the Foot Clan causing mayhem throughout the city, four vigilantes emerge from beneath to help.  With the help of April O'Neill and their sensei, Splinter, the band of brothers face all evil head (shell) on.  It is the same old TMNT story we all have known and seen before, just very pretty.

There is one section in the film, a good 20 minute section, that is pure Bay, sloooooow mooootion at every possible moment, big explosions and large scale destruction.  This is the snow slide scene (which there is a little shown in the trailer), and it was very entertaining and I even turned to Clare and commented how much I had enjoyed it. The final 30 mins of the film made up for a meandering first hour.

The motion capture is very well done and the heroes in a half shell look half decent.  With good individual personalities and styles each turtle has their moment.

I do wonder where the franchise will go, because a few sequels are inevitable.  If this is the case, I for one, will be campaigning for Beebop and Rocksteady

Film 87 - The Rewrite

The Rewrite - 10/10/2014

IMDB lists this film as a romantic comedy, a I must admit I am struggling to find where the romance and definitely where the comedy was.

Hugh Grant plays an out of work screen writer who takes a job as a college teacher to pass on his knowledge.  There he smarms his way through a class of beauty models, two male geeks and a single mum.

As much as I enjoyed some of the film references, the film itself is very slow, predictable, and not very interesting.  It is a very unfunny version of School Of Rock.  Down on his luck, starts a teaching job, good things happen because of it and then he continues to be a teacher realising he enjoys it...just without the laughs or the cool music.

This is definitely a contender for one of the worst films of the year.

Film 86 - Dracula Untold

Dracula Untold - 09/10/2014

Having seen the success of Marvel's Avengers franchise and the upcoming hype behind WB and DC's Justice League films, Universal is looking to re-invent their Monsters Franchise, starting with their most famous, Dracula.

Starting with a back story of how Vlad was taken from his family as a young boy by the "Turks" and trained to be a warrior without remorse, compassion or fear he soon became known as Vlad the Impaler.  When he reached an adult age, Vlad left the Turks and returned home to Transylvania to live peacefully as prince of Castle Dracula.  When the Turks return and demand 1000 Transylvanian children for their army, including Vlad's only son, he seeks help from a viscous being high up a mountain cliff.  With his new found skills and power he will be able to defeat the Turk Armies, but at what cost?

If you watch the trailer for Dracula Untold you could pretty much save yourself 90 mins, there is not much more to the film than this.  

It wasn't boring, it entertained me for the full running time, but it just seemed lacking in pretty much everything as well.  and I am pretty sure that this story was told in about 2 mins (same length as the trailer) in Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) as a prequel to the film.  So the fact it is called Dracula Untold is a bit of a lie.

Some nice effect, and hammy acting, but nothing too spectacular.  If this is Universal's initial attempt for a revival it may need a little more electricity or a full moon.

Film 85 - Gone Girl

Gone Girl - 04/04/2014

My second Rosamund Pike film in 24 hours, and what a difference.

There is not really much I can say about this film without spoilers and I really don't to ruin the film for anyone who is looking to go see this.

I have not read the book the film is based on, so went into the cinema without much understanding of what I was going to see.  I had seen the trailer and thought it could be a normal run of the mill thriller until I saw that David Fincher was the director, then I got a little excited.

Mr Fincher has directed some of my favourite films, so I was expecting a lot from this before the film began, and I was not let down.

Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, who after the disappearance of his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike) becomes the focus of an intense media circus, is he innocent or with his motives could he have had something to do with her disappearance?  The first part of the film is done with Ben Affleck in the media and how the news, family and friends all feel about him whilst under police investigation, and the Rosamund Pike section running alongside giving us the back story of the last 5 years of marriage through diary entries.  Both sides portray Nick Dunne in a different light which I started to question his innocence.

With more and more coming into the light and the police investigation heating up the film takes different routes to lead to a fantastic climax.

Gone Girl is definitely worth a watch, all the leads are really well acted and believable.  There are a few laughs as well, and the long running time flew by with not a thought of boredom

As I said, without ruining the film, I can only really write about the first hour of the film, but believe me, this is really worth a watch.  Visually stunning with an absorbing soundtrack.

Film 84 - What We Did On Our Holiday

What We Did On Our Holiday - 03/10/2014

I could have personally watched Billy Connolly and the kids on the beach for an hour, but things got complicated

What we did on our holiday starts with a broken family, Rosamund Pike and her fantastic kids and David Tennant who has recently moved out of the marital home prior to an inevitable divorce. Their son is overly obsessed with Odin, eldest daughter has serious issues and seems to struggle to cope with social pressures and the youngest daughter who is a delight to watch.  The family venture to Scotland to visit their unwell father/grandfather for his birthday.  David Tennant's brother (Ben Millar) and wife-to-be have been looking after "dad" since his onset of cancer, and being a well off couple they are always out to impress. Ben Miller's son is a part that could really have been cut form the film with little to no impact on the final result.  He is a real none entity throughout

I heard an interview prior to watching this film with Simon Mayo and Rosamund Pike in which she stated that most of the children's screen time was just captured on screen naturally and very little script work was done with them.  This shows with some of the comments that the youngest comes out with.

The first part of the film is very entertaining and laugh out loud funny, but mid way through it takes a twist that I really didn't expect, and unfortunately, didn't enjoy.  

I cannot express how funny the little girl is throughout the film, and she probably saves it nearer the end.  When the scene with Billy and the kids on the beach ends, so should the film.