The Week That Was 14 -21 October

October 22, 2012 2 Comments

Welcome to The Week That Was where I take a look back at what I have watched over the last seven days. Another milestone hit this week as I passed movie number 150 for the year leaving me on target for 200 movies by years end.

Ok, so let’s get into it then,  here is the tale of the tape for the week.  As always you can check out my full 2012 watch list here.

Cinema Screenings

Safety Not Guaranteed   – I have waited a long time for this indie tale of time travel and regret which has torn up the festival circuit over the last year and it was well worth it.  A hugely enjoyable film with a cracking performance by Audrey Plaza who finds herself clicking with Mark Duplass who likes tinkering with things in his shed.  Word of warning though, one screening probably won’t be enough.  ★★★★

Couch Screenings

Killer Elite  - Mark over at Marked Movies  and I are clearly in sync at the moment as we both wrote pretty damning reviews of this supposed thinking man’s action flick.  Check out my full review here and Mark’s here.  ★★

The Runaways - All teenagers suddenly grow up and want to be in a band, I just never expected that to happen to Dakota Fanning who teams up with Kirsten Stewart amongst others in this biopic of The Runaways, the group Joan Jett first started out in.  A bit like the Josie and Pussycats, just with a lot more drugs. Watchable enough, but it would certainly help matters if you knew the music before going in.   I didn’t so it was a little bit of a slog. ★★★

The Prestige  - Managed to tick off my one blind spot with Christopher Nolan.  A very divisive film with it tending to sit either at the top or bottom of peoples Best of Nolan lists.  However I think I am going to buck the trend and put it firmly in the middle.  Great performances all round and a really interesting story, once it gets going that is.   However due to the plot structure (which I will not go into at all) it is a film I suspect that will grow on me over future watches, so may well end up more towards the top.  ★★★★

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang -   Still great, but I did spend a lot of the film waiting for Geena Davies to turn up, until I realised that I was thinking of The Long Kiss Goodnight.  ★★★★

Hanna – Been meaning to revisit this for a long time.  Stands up incredibly well.   The kids steal it though, not only Saorise Ronan as Hanna, but also Jessica Barden as Sophie. A really decent compact and tight film, with a thumping Euro-Techno soundtrack and some very amusing Germans.  ★★★★

TV Shows

The Office Season Seven  - One of the few shows which has worked well being remade for a US audience and some would say has now surpassed Ricky Gervais’s original.  Not me though; its good but not that good.  ★★★★

 

2012 Score Sheet

Cinema Screenings – 46
Couch Screenings – 64
 
Total (new films) – 110
 
Re-watches – 42
 
2012 Total film count – 152
 
How about you guys, seen anything good?

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Movie Review: Killer Elite (2011)

October 21, 2012 12 Comments

Director – Gary McKendry
Starring – Jason Statham, Clive Owen, Robert De Niro, Dominic Purcell
Writer – Matt Sherring (screenplay) based on a book by Ranulph Fiennes
Year – 2012
Running Time – 120 mins

 What is it with the military and moustaches?

I first came across Killer Elite whilst scrolling through the rental screen on iTunes looking for something to fill a couple of hours with.  The reviews talked about ‘a thinking man’s action film’ inspired by “The Feather Men” a book by British legend Ranulph Fiennes.  The cast also included Jason Statham, Clive Owen and none other than Robert De Niro.  It was a tempting package so I excitedly clicked on rent now.  10 minutes later I knew I had made quite a big mistake, but by then it was too late to ask for my money back.

Killer Elite is based in 1980 and tells the story of a group of hit men led by Robert De Niro as mercenaries for hire.  After one final job Statham retires to Australia in at attempt to forget the past until it inevitably catches up with him, this time in the guise of an Omani Sheikh who has taken De Niro hostage after he refused to complete an assignment.  The job in question was to track down and kill three British SAS officers who were implicit in the murder of the Sheikh’s son during the Omani Dhofar Rebellion.  Now Statham not only has to track down and kill three of the most well trained military soldiers in the world, but also extract a taped confession from them.  Only then will De Niro be released.

This film felt like a huge wasted opportunity.  It had a cracking back-story, a compelling premise and on paper a cast up to the job. However something went wrong as it just felt incredibly flat and lacking in any real bite. A team of mercenaries up against the best-trained military outfit in the world should be good and if it’s not then the main culprit has to be the script.

One of the key tenants of script writing is to show the audience rather than tell and this was probably my biggest gripe. So often the script resorted to a character speaking lines purely for plot development.  The Feather Men themselves is probably the best example.  Their backstory is given in three lines by the leader of the group and felt crowbarred in.  No one in that room needed to hear what he said, but I would have loved to understand the group in more detail.

Statham is solid enough and there was potential for this to be the vehicle to to take him out of his action man comfort zone and into a more substantial role.  However the script simply doesn’t deliver and he is left to flounder with clichéd one liners interspersed with brief moments of extreme physical violence, so essentially delivering bog standard Statham.  I was also slightly confounded by just how easy Statham was able to operate.  In the original story the mission took place over 17 years, and whilst this isn’t a plot spoiler, Statham is a bit quicker.

Amongst it all though there are glimpses of what could have been.  Statham’s interaction with Clive Owen, a former SAS officer tasked to keep what happened in Oman secret is the highlight of the film.  The two play of each other well, not only in their physical encounters but also in some of the films slightly more philosophical moments.  De Niro though is wasted, essentially taking the entire middle of the film off and seems to be purely in paycheck mode.  There was though one glorious moment early on in the film where Bob was back in full-blown action mode with strong echoes of Heat, however this proved to be the highpoint.

All in all I was left frustrated by Killer Elite.  With such an interesting story it could and should have been a lot better.  If it wasn’t for all the miltary moustaches it may well have been a one star film.

★★

Review by Will Malone

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New Films in Canberra

October 18, 2012 1 Comment

Quite a big week for new releases with four new films opening in the territory.

Safety Not Guaranteed – Fresh off getting a standing ovation at Sundance and other film festivals, this mixture of science fiction, fantasy and relationships finally lands in Canberra.  This has been on my radar all summer and clearly my film of the week. Check it out playing at Manuka.

To Rome With Love – Woody Allen’s European adventure continues. Whilst not reaching the heights of Midnight in Paris it has still received from good reviews.  I’ll be checking it out at Dendy.

Savages – Oliver Stone’e latest has split some critics, with most complaining of a poor final reel.  I am tempted though so will almost certainly still check it out.  Playing at Hoyts and Dendy.

Paranormal Activity 4 – Still can’t quite believe how well this franchise is doing.  I have seen the first but not any of the sequels, so will probably give this one a miss.  You can check out a full review by Alex of at Time For A Film who has been on a bit of a paranormal streak over recent days.  Playing at Hoyts.

What new films are you looking forward to this week?

 

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The Week That Was 8 – 14 October

October 15, 2012 4 Comments

Welcome to The Week That Was where I take a look back at what I have watched over the last seven days.  Due to a work trip to Sydney and then hosting some visitors back here in Canberra it was a pretty light week and it wasn’t until the weekend that I finally found some time to sit down and catch up on some flicks. The weekend was pretty chilled though and I managed to get in 6 films including a second screening of Looper.

The big news this week was finally biting the bullet and buying myself a Blu Ray player.  Now this was a bit of a turnaround for me and you can read the background to it here, but I am really glad that I did.  My first Blu Ray was the 1975 classic Jaws, which just looked glorious in full high-definition, in particular the party scenes filmed at dusk on the beach.  The danger of transitioning to a new platform is the temptation to upgrade all your back catalogue.  I have had to lay down some strict rules in this regard which you can read here.

Ok, so let’s get into it then and here is the tale of the tape for the week.  As always you can check out my full 2012 watch list here.

Cinema Screenings

Killing Them Softly  – Brad Pitt and Andrew Dominik re-team this time to tell the tale a mob enforcer hired to investigate who took down a local card game.  This was a gritty gangster flick with return to form performances from a stella supporting cast including Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins and Vincent Curtola.  Personally I found the constant political undertones a little too obvious, but the fiscally prudent interactions between Pitt and his mob-handler Jenkins more than made up for this.  Not as good as I expected but well worth a watch. ★★★

Looper – Second time round for this time travel tale with Bruce Willis and JGL which I think I enjoyed more than my first viewing.  So much so that it goes up a star. ★★★★★

Couch Screenings

Jaws - My favourite film of all time and Bruce looks even better in full high def goodness. ★★★★★

2 Days In New York – Julie Delphy continues her 2 Days of series, this time alongside the straight acting Chris Rock in his best role for years.  Delphy apparently wrote the role with Rock in mind and the chemistry between them is evident with echos of Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise/Sunset.  Whilst a little stereotypical at times, an enjoyable romp but not one to stick in the memory too long.   ★★★

I Love You Phillip Morris - Jim Carrey again proves that he has proper acting chops in this engaging true life tale of Steven Russell, a gay man who comes out in his mid 40s and turns to crime to fund his extravagant lifestyle as he realises that being gay is really expensive.   Think Catch Me If You Can mixed with Priscilla Queen Of Desert. ★★★

Margin Call – Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons are the real highlights of this timely tale which, over a 24 hour period, follows key individuals of an investment bank at the start of the global financial crisis.   A touch TV movie like, but still really quite watchable.  I have no idea why Demi Moore was in it though.  ★★★

TV Shows

Breaking Bad - Finally finished off Season 4 so now the cold turkey really begins.  I am intrigued to see what they do in Season 5 (which will be the last) as come the end of this season it seemed to reach a natural conclusion.  To help me through the wait I have ordered Season 6 of Dexter from the UK.

Music 

Two albums purchased this week including The Sapphires Soundtrack, which due to it being unavailable in the UK iTunes store I actually bought on CD, which must be the first CD I have bought in close to five years.  After a couple of listens I am itching to see the film again on the big screen.  The second was the latest from Pink The Truth About Love, another raw and autobiographical album which paints a turbulent picture of life at home.

2012 Score Sheet

Cinema Screenings – 45
Couch Screenings – 61
 
Total (new films) – 106
 
Re-watches – 40
 
2012 Total film count – 146
 
How about you guys, seen anything good?

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Blu Ray: A Turnaround In Perspective

October 13, 2012 1 Comment

One of my very first posts of this site was DVD or Download where I summarised that I could remember the exact moment that I moved from buying films on DVD to purely downloading films instead.  The moment in question was when my eldest daughter managed to figure out how to open the DVD player.  That was game over for the DVDs there and then.

Over recent months though I have had gradual change of heart.  As I mentioned in the earlier post scrolling through a screen has none of the tactile attachment of films on a shelf and indeed almost none of the extras that come with disks.  This has lead me to feel increasingly detached from my movie collection and as I watched the ever lowering price of Blu Rays and indeed Blu Ray players I began to question my original decision.

So as I was strolling around JB Hi-Fi yesterday I came across a region free Blu Ray player for a smidgen over $100. This was very tempting. Region free is very important to me as even though I live in Australia most of my library comes from when I was in the UK, therefore  I need one player to play everything.  As I looked around the store I also noticed the plethora of Blu Rays for $15, as well as deals such as 2 for $20 and 2 for $30.  These prices were cheaper than download, better quality (1080 v 720) and come with all the extras.  A light suddenly came on in my head and the next thing I knew money was exchanged and out the shop I strolled with my shiny new region free Blu Ray player under my arm.

So onto yet another platform it would appear.   This is always a dangerous time for me as there is the constant temptation to update your collection in its entirety.  Luckily though the new player will also play and upscale DVDs which should help to resist much of the temptation, but even so I will still need to stick to the strict rules which are:-

- Only new films can be bought on Blu Ray

- The only exception to rule one are films listed in my personal top 20. These can be upgraded as I think it is important to try and own the best quality you can for your favourite films.

- TV shows cannot be bought on Blu Ray; DVD versions are more than adequate for this.

- I need to figure out a why of hooking up  a shelf to ensure the new player is out of reach of sticky fingers.

If I keep to the above then I should be fine.

So the only thing left now was to celebrate and what better way than by christening the new player.  But what film was it to be? Which film would be my first ever Blu Ray purchase?  As you tell from the picture up top I went for the anniversary edition of Jaws which is probably my favourite film of all time, therefore in full accordance with the rules laid out above.

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The Week That Was 31 September – 7 October

October 7, 2012 2 Comments

Welcome the the Week That Was where I take a look back at what I have watched over the last seven days.  Due to work and home pressures this week got off to a slow start but certainly picked up pace towards the end and saw me pass the 100 new movies mark for the year.  I still hope to hit 150 by the years end, CIFF will certainly help in this regard but I reckon I will still need to put in some solid screen time in November and December.

Talking of CIFF (The Canberra International Film Festival), I finally locked in my schedule and bought the tickets so there is no going back now.  As always there were some casualties along the way and you can read about my CIFF Casualties here.  I am hoping to do some CIFF related posts in the run up to the festival highlighting in a bit more detail the films I hope to watch.

Ok, so let’s get into it then and here is the tale of the tape for the week.  As always you can check out my full 2012 watch list here.

Cinema Screenings

Arbitrage  - Richard Gere stars in this solid thriller about a Hedge Fund manager whose life gets turned upside down by a car crash with unexpected consequences and the financial pressures of trying to save his company.  This was an impressive return to form for the Silver Fox (who appears to be getting younger) as well as Tim Roth who plays a cop investigating the car crash. Not quite as good as I expected but solid enough.  Won’t make the top ten of the year though.  ★★★

Couch Screenings

The Dictator - Sasha Baron Cohen’s latest ‘comedy’ about a Middle Eastern dictator who travels to New York to address the UN.  An offensive, unfunny and poorly judged film.  Cohen needs to look again at what he is doing as he is clearly on the wrong track at present. However once I realised that Anna Farris, who plays the female lead, was the voice from Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs it made the film slightly more palatable, mainly as it reminded me how much fun Meatballs was. ★ 

Guns, Girls and Gambling – The girls over at Reel Insight recently ran a feature on is there an actor for which you will watch anything they are in?  Well for me it appears that it may be Christian Slater as that was the sole reason for renting this cheap Tarantino knock off about 5 Elvis impersonators who get caught up in a heist.  Not good at all, but better than The Dictator.  ★★

The Woman In Black – Or as it could be entitled Harry Potter meets Home Alone.  However Harry has clearly grown up and Daniel Radcliffe puts in a measured and mature performance in this tense hammer horror.  Considering that for a large part of the film it is just Radcliffe inside a house, this shows he can carry a film outside of the franchise.  Beware though, jumpy stuff in places.  ★★★

Marley – I needed to chill out a bit after The Woman In Black and Kevin Macdonald’s raw, honest and compelling documentary which deals more on the man rather than the music was just the tonic.  This is up there with Senna as one the best docs I have seen in recent years.  ★★★★

TV Shows

Breaking Bad – It was a good day on Monday when I found that Season 4 was on Bigpond  download.  10 episodes rattled off in a  week.  Already getting concerned where I will get my next fix from.  Truly excellent television.

2012 Score Sheet

Cinema Screenings – 44
Couch Screenings – 58
 
Total (new films) – 102
 
Re-watches – 38
 
2012 Total film count – 140
 
How about you guys, seen anything good?

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My CIFF Casualty List

October 3, 2012 3 Comments

After a lot of pondering, my CIFF schedule is now locked in and can be seen in full here.  As with any schedule there are inevitably casualties due to screening clashes and as I am quickly learning you just can’t see everything.

Therefore I have had to regretfully say farewell to :-

The Angels’s Share – I could only make the opening night screening which was $50 which seems a bit steep for a film that I can rent from iTunes for a tenth of the price

Save Yer Legs - Closing night screening and again priced at $50, decided to take the cheaper option and see Paris-Manhattan instead.

Smashed - Clashed with Room 237 which I was very keen to see.  This was a tough call.  Still not convinced I have got it right.

The Shining – Clashed with Like Someone In Love and whilst it would have been great to see The Shining on the big screen, especially directly after Room 237, I had to prioritize seeing new films over rewatches.

There is also a three-day block in the middle of the festival that I am missing due to a wedding of a good friend which knocks out a whole range of films, but the biggest being Monsieur Lazhar; probably my biggest casualty of all.

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The Week That Was 23 – 31 September

October 1, 2012 Leave a comment

Welcome to another Week That Was.  Quite a lot has happened over the last seven days, so lets get straight into it.

First off the Canberra International Film Festival which runs from 31 October – 11 November was officially launched.  The programme is varied with a mixture of strong Australian films alongside plenty of international fare.  I spent a good part of Monday trawling through the programme and even though I will miss out on the middle weekend I reckon I can still get in 20 films.  You can see my provisional schedule here.

Secondly, as you can tell from the rather natty new red badge on the sidebar, I officially became a member of the Large Association of Movie Blogs or The Lamb for short.  I have been reading other Lamb blogs for a couple of years now so it feels good to finally (and officially) be part of the flock.

And thirdly but most importantly, my youngest turned three this week which we celebrated with a Tinker Bell themed birthday party and a trip to see Tinker Bell: The Secret Of The Wings at the cinema.  Having 18 kids round for the party was truly exhausting, but worth it.

In amongst all of this I managed to get back into the cinema again, so here is the tale of the tape from the last week.  As always you can check out my full 2012 watch list here:-

Cinema Screenings

Beasts Of The Southern Wild  - I went in with very high expectations after reading nothing but glowing reviews for this gritty, intelligent and highly emotional drama about a family in the Southern Delta dealing with all that life and Mother Nature has to throw at them.  I am pleased to say that this held up incredibly well to its billing and will no doubt be in my top ten of the year.  Highly Recommended

The Expendables 2  - Exactly the opposite to the above.  I went in with very low expectations after reading nothing but damming reviews of this sequel to the 2010 ensemble 80s action reunion, but this time with added Chuck Norris and Jean Claude Van Damme.  Unfortunately this also lived up to its billing with a script full of badly timed puns and cringeworthy cliches, which when coupled with badly executed and over the top action set pieces, produces a film very wide of the mark and not even close to the classic action films it is trying to imitate.  Jean Claude Van Damme was great though.  Approach With Caution

Looper – An intelligent and highly entertaining sci-fi  drama which just about stays on the right side of believable.  Look out for the review later this week. Still can’t believe how good Emily Blunt was, this woman can do no wrong.   Highly Recommended 

Tinker Bell: The Secret Of The Wings – Part three in the Tinker Bell story and this time Tinkers gets all rebellious and crosses the border to the winter side.  Don’t worry she doesn’t go all Darth Vader like but manages to get into a few scrapes along the way.  Another fun and really quite watchable tale which went down a storm with the girls.  Watch It 

Couch Screenings

Jeff Who Lives At Home - I didn’t like this Duplass brothers film about a stay at home Jason Segal who after being sent on an errand by his mother embarks on a journey to try and find his own destiny.  I just couldn’t connect (or care about) any of the characters and the plinky plonky (attempting to be ever so indie) score, alongside the awful script almost had me tearing my hair out.   Approach With Caution.

The Loved Ones – Well, was this a surprise on the same level as Holy Motors from a few weeks back.  Went in knowing nothing about the film except that it was an High School Aussie film which I assumed was going to be a comedy drama type thing.  Oh no, not even close.  This turned out to be an exploitation flick, which bordered on torture porn on occasion, about how far a young girl and her father will go if you turn down an invitation to the prom.    Probably great if you like that type of thing; me not so much.  Approach With Caution (quite literally)

TV Shows

Nothing new started this week.  Trying to narrow down what my next series will be.  I suspect either season 4 of Breaking Bad or Season 5 of Dexter.

2012 Score Sheet

Cinema Screenings – 43
Couch Screenings – 54
 
Total (new films) – 97
 
Re-watches – 38
 
2012 Total film count – 135
 
How about you guys, seen anything good?

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Canberra International Film Festival

September 26, 2012 7 Comments

The programme for the 16th Canberra International Film Festival (CIFF) which runs from Wednesday 31 October to Sunday 11 November was published this morning.

This will be my first ever film festival and whilst it is not quite on the scale of either the Sydney, Melbourne and certainly not Toronto festivals, it is something I am really looking forward to. So in anticipation I have spent a bit of time today trying to narrow down the 60 selections to a more manageable 20 or so.  

Unfortunatley due to the wedding of a good friend I will miss the middle weekend but that sill leaves lots of good stuff on offer.  Here is a list of what I have so far.  I would be really grateful for any comments on potential missteps or suggestions for any films I may have missed.  You can check out the full programme at the CIFF website.:-

Opening Night:             Ken Loach’s ‘The Angels’ Share’

Closing Night:              Boyd Hickin’s ‘Save Yer Legs’

 

Other selections:-

The Hunt

Beyond The Hills

Sightseers

Turn Me On Goddammit

The Imposter

Chasing Ice

Room 237

The Shining

Grabbers

Berberian Sound Studio

The Loneliest Planet

American Mary

I, Anna

Sleepless Night

Like Someone In Love

No

Love Story

Children Of Sarajevo

Monsieur Lazhar

Rust and Bone

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The Week That Was 9 – 23 September

September 25, 2012 4 Comments

Ok, so I admit I am being a little slack of late, but welcome to another double strength The Week That Was.  Sadly though it is still quite a light read as the Malone household took themselves off for a bit of an Aussie road trip driving from Canberra across country to the wine region of the Barossa Valley, with a quick stop at Adelaide in South Australia.  It was a great trip and our young girls did well being cooped up in the car for just under 3000 ks, mainly as they were  suitably entertained by an iPad mounted between the seats (therefore out of reach of sticky fingers) and loaded with Pixar goodness.  So whilst I haven’t seen a huge amount of late, I have listened to awful lot of colourful cartoon creatures.  I did manage to tick something off the bucket list though.

So here is the tale of the tape from the last two weeks.  As always you can check out my full 2012 watch list here:-

Cinema Screenings

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted - The girls and I watched this in a drive in movie theatre, so ticking off a life long ambition.  Just a shame it was with this film.  Pretty standard fare. Skip It (unless you are a little person).

Your Sister’s Sister - Lynn Shelton’s comedy drama about love, relationships and loss.  Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass and Rosemarie DeWitt all deliver cracking performances in this engaging, tightly scripted and beautifully shot tale.   Another film from which I have come out of thinking that Emily Blunt is simply the nicest person in the world.  Watch It.

Ruby Sparks  - Paul Dano stars alongside Zoe Kazan in this touching romantic fantasy about a struggling novelist who creates his perfect soul-mate first through his writing and then in real life  Think Weird Science meets Lars and the Real Girl and you are on the right track.  Great fun, but slightly darker than I expected.  Watch It.

Couch Screenings

Indie Game: The Movie - A documentary that follows the journeys of indie game developers as they create games and release those works, and themselves, to the world. Even though I am not much of a gamer this was fascinating stuff, so much so that I found myself googling the developers once the credits rolled, just to check they were ok.   Watch It.

Lockout - Guy Pearce channels his inner Bruce Willis to good effect and appears to be having a great time along the way in this hugely enjoyable cross between Die Hard in space and the Last Boy Scout.  Check out the full review here . Highly Recommended.

Any Questions For Ben  - An Australian tale of a twenty something marketing executive who appears to have something of an early midlife crisis.  Whilst entertaining for the most part it is let down by a clichéd riddled script, undeveloped characters and an ill though through final reel. Australian cinema can do much better than this.  Skip It.

TV Shows

Peep Show - Really enjoyed this British comedy about two flat mates in South London.  Powered through season 1-6 in record time, helped along by only 6 episodes per season each, with a 24 minute running time.  Highly Recommended.

2012 Score Sheet

Cinema Screenings – 39
Couch Screenings – 43
 
Total (new films) – 91
 
Re-watches – 38
 
2012 Total film count – 129
 
How about you guys, seen anything good?

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