#1 - SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
Stars - John Travolta, Karen Lynn Gorney
Director - John Badham
Memorable Quote - 'You can't fuck the future. The future fucks you! It catches up with you and it fucks you if you ain't planned for it!'
Review - This film is in some ways hilarious and in other ways really quite sad. Remember when I said I didn't believe in Travolta as a gangster in 'The Taking of Pelham 123'? This, this right here, this is why. He acts kind of cool sometimes, makes immature little teenager mistakes, and shows himself as a product of his upbringing trying to look for something more - but all he really does is dance in a way that looks quite silly and basic to the modern audience. His drawled little soundbites are probably the only interesting facet of his character, and all of the female characters come across as dumb and repressed. Anyway, not a terrible movie, but one that seems to have dulled with time. 2/5
#2 - A PERFECT GETAWAY
Stars - Mila Jovavich, Steve Zahn, Timothy Olyphant, Kiele Sanchez
Director - David Twohy
Memorable Quote - 'Remember, nothing exists until we get there!'
Review - Everyone loves a good murder thriller, right? The execution (har, har) of this one is nigh perfect, and I was consistently struck by the quality of the directorship. Jovavich was consistently irritating, though, until of course you realise that she was being deliberately so, which sort of half-atones for it. I loved the big twist, which we were of course warned about by the dialogue about film scripts (and I do love self-reflexive movies); even though the identity of the murderers was a possibility that presented itself, it was one of three possibilities, so it was still a surprise when the reveal was made. The subtle introduction of clues was also good - "He's really hard to kill" etc. And then the title is a pun! All in all, well worth a watch. 4/5
#3 - THE BOOK OF ELI
Stars - Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Jennifer Beales
Director - Albert & Allen Hughes
Memorable Quote - 'Stay on the path. It's not your concern.'
Review - Well, well, well. What a little gem. The treatment of this film is epic, all desaturated as it is, to the point of almost being black and white. Meanwhile it is high contrast, with the kind of HD action close-ups that we saw in The Hurt Locker, all wonderfully managed by the Hughes brothers. In short, this is an example of a post-apocalypse film done well. It outshines many others recently created in its genre (I Am Legend, Children of Men, etc etc) whilst stopping short of alienating all but the most devout of fans of the genre, as is often the risk. This is partly due to the casting - in Denzel Washington we have a perennial favourite who never fails to deliver a great performance no matter the genre, and in Mila Kunis we find a teenage girl who acts just like she is supposed to. We can identify with and empathize with these characters with ease, which gets almost all of the hooking-in done right away. The ending and the little twist there is very nicely done, and overall, though I do try my hardest, I can think of very little to criticise. 4.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment