2012:

Crap.

Over-rated. Didn't really enjoy it at all, far too 'Hollywood' for my liking, and a bit long too.

2 stars.

I know you guys in Australia are slightly ahead of us but that's just being silly!

How long is it? 366 days, I'd assume...

Shut up, John.

I really enjoyed it too. One of my colleagues said yesterday that Tommy Lee Jones was the killer - it was played by another actor as his 'alter-ego'. Not sure I go along with that view but interesting idea.

Brüno

Just caught up with Sacha Baron Cohen's latest on DVD and if you liked his previous effort, Börat, then you'll enjoy this. The basic plot of the film is much the same as before as Austrian TV Presenter and fashionista Brüno arrives in the USA determined to make a name for himself. His outrageous attempts to become a star are very funny even though this film is so similar to the previous one. Watch out for the scene where a TV Focus Group is shown a preview of Brüno's new show which ends in one of the most hilarious and shocking things in any film ever and leaves the group stunned.

The DVD Commentary is well worth a listen too as the filmmakers reveal the background to the situations Brüno finds himself in and how Sacha Baron Cohen manages to avoid arrest on several occasions!

7.5 out of 1Ö

I saw A Wonderful Afterlife last night.
Think, Goodness Gracious Me with a Mr Creosote sketch at the beginning.

Up in the air

This film stars George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a consultant who spends most of his time flying around the USA firing people for companies who are too feeble to do it themselves. He prefers this lifestyle as it is totally baggage free...he has no real relationships with family or friends and very few possessions apart from things he needs to do his job. When a new and ambitious colleague comes up with a plan to do the same job but over the Internet so that the consultants will no longer need to travel, Ryan finds his whole way of life in jeopardy and is forced to reassess his priorities.

Doesn't sound like it would be much of a film but I really enjoyed this. It has equal parts comedy and drama and carries it off with ease, helped along by good acting from Clooney and the rest of the cast. It's quite a subtle film which suits the subject matter. It isn't laugh-out-loud but it is humourous just not in a typical rom-com way.

7 out of 10

The Lovely Bones

Directed by Peter Jackson and adapted from the highly-regarded book of the same name, this film tells the story of 14 year old Susie Salmon who is murdered by a neighbour and then has to watch the repercussions for her family from the afterlife.

A film with subject matter like this stands or falls by the acting and Jackson assembled a very good cast especially with Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon and a chilling performance from Stanley Tucci as the creepy neighbour who Susie's family come to suspect may have killed her. Some scenes are uncomfortably tense as you'd imagine, but Jackson handles it all quite well despite the fact that at times the film gets a bit too sentimental. I can't say much more about it but if you are in the mood for something slightly off the beaten track you might enjoy it but I must say that it is a bit difficult to see who this film is meant to appeal to.

6.5 out of 10

I watched The Road recently.

All I have to say is 'Is that it? Oh.'

Completely fails to deliver, or perhaps it's just reminiscent of a lot of 70s films, where the journey is more important than the destination, and ultimately the demand for closure is secondary to the characters progress.
Whatever, I'll still say most of you will be wholly underwhelmed by it.

The Losers - worth a watch, actually maybe better if you haven't read the book

Kick Ass - So bad, I'm gonna have to try and forget most of it before I can even attempt the book

I saw the third part of the Stieg Larson's Millennium Trilogy, Vergebung (Forgiveness - I think the UK name is The girl who kicked the hornet's nest?).

I haven't seen the first 2 parts of the trilogy, so I can't comment on them... I was a little reluctant to go and watch this, not having seen the rest of the story, but I'm glad I did.

It is a tense thriller, in the classic sense of the word. It has suspense and builds up over 2 and half hours to a crescendo. None of this cutting to a different scene every 10 seconds to keep the MTV generation's attention, this is a real film. There are no big explosions, little or no CGI, and not constant action, but real character building and information, real film making at its best.

The film suits the story matter, it is gritty and dark.

I assume, it starts off from where the previous book/film leaves off, with the heroin being air-lifted to hospital, after having attempted to kill her father and being shot by her half brother.

The film is a race against time as the secret group try and destroy her and those trying to bring her story (and them) to light. The characters are well portrayed and the cast is very well selected.

Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist is suitably gritty and has the sort of downtrodden face that passes perfectly in the role. You really feel for him, as he fights for truth and justice.

Likewise, Noomi Rapace is excellent as Lisabeth, secret and dark, never letting anything out about herself, controlled.

Anders Albom is truly creepy as Doctor Teleborien and the cast of older actors playing the roles of the men from Sektion are excellently portrayed.

9 out of 10.

Make that 2.

I trying to actually remember it because it was neither terrible nor was it great. It was the worse thing of all, unmemorable.

Paranormal Activity

I'm sure everyone has at least heard about this film, bearing in mind it was promoted as 'The scariest film in years.' Paranormal Activity is the story of three weeks in the lives of a young couple, Micah and Katie, who have to deal with what seems to be a ghost in their home. The film is yet another of those documentary-style hand-held camera efforts (Blair Witch, Cloverfield, etc) so you only get to see what is recorded when Micah tries to document the weird happenings by setting up a camera in their bedroom overnight.



In fact, this film is very like Blair Witch Project and Amityville Horror in tone as small and unsettling occurrences begin to increase in frequency and intensity and you have long periods of time where you are straining to hear odd sounds while onscreen is almost completely dark as most of the film takes place at night. It is quite a tense film and I can imagine that some people would find it very frightening. It's a great choice to have this film set in a bedroom for much of the running time as many of us have heard a noise in the night and thought "What was that? and it is precisely that fear that the film exploits.

I enjoyed it, but then I enjoyed Blair Witch. If you hated that film then you won't like this one either.

7 out of 10

The Crazies

2010 remake of the original 1973 George Romero film. A small town in Iowa has escalating problems as its citizens start becoming homicidal killers. As the army are called in to try and halt the spread of the infection, several townspeople try their best to escape the army as well as their friends and family any one of whom could suddenly become murderous.

Anyone who has seen the 1973 version would probably think that it is one of the few films that deserves a remake because of the various factors that hamper enjoyment of Romero's original, e.g. very low budget, terrible acting, etc. And yes, this remake adds all the surface gloss that you'd expect but gets it wrong in one very serious aspect. It only tells the story from the viewpoint of the few characters who try to escape whereas the original focussed just as much on the increasingly desperate attempts by army personnel to control the situation, which added a real sense of panic and of time running out. Because of this The Crazies just becomes another run-of-the-mill zombie story (even though they are not zombies, just infected) along the lines of a Resident Evil film. It's perfectly well acted and directed and there's some great photography but overall it's an unsatisfying film.

5 out of 10

^ Saw this recently, and I'd say not seeing the original probably made it quite enjoyable - I'd say you're right on the army aspect in the original too, at a guess

It's one of the few horror films I've seen recently that genuinely had you wondering where the next attack was coming from, and without looking like it was edited by someone who'd found Dennis Hopper's stash