#1 - THE CRAZIES
Stars - Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker
Director - Breck Eisner
Memorable Quote - 'Fuck you for what you did.'
Review - You know what really annoys me about the horror genre? Look at this. This is a well-filmed piece, using brilliant techniques and beautiful framing. It has great actors and a premise that stands out from the crowd. It takes a well-known and popular formula and makes it better. But the characters in the movie are still so damn stupid that you end up not feeling sorry for them at all! For example, what kind of pregnant lady who keeps being threatened by people with guns would leave a bulletproof vest lying by the side of the road? Why, knowing that the government want you dead, would you decide to head for the nearest town where you often work and where people know who you are? Why, if you are on the run, would you walk straight down the centre of every road instead of trying to find a little cover? Add the fact that everyone seems to forget she's pregnant after a while, and she goes through several crashes, attacks, terrifying situations etc which would be enough to bring on a miscarriage, while experiencing no discomfort or indeed concern for the baby's welfare. However. Everything I said at first still stands, and this is a good movie. Olyphant never fails to do well, though he is becoming slightly typecast, and the government twist was very nice. I just wish people would put a bit more effort in. 4/5
#2 - ZOMBIELAND
Stars - Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin
Director - Ruben Fleischer
Memorable Quote - Tallahassee: 'I'm not great at farewells, so uh... that'll do, pig.'
Columbus: 'That's the worst goodbye I've ever heard. And you stole it from a movie.'
Review - First point to note - this film was very clearly written for Michael Cera, and Eisenberg is a very clear imitation. It is actually quite spooky how similar their voices and acting styles are. Aside from that, Woody Harrelson is fantastic as ever and it's nice to see Breslin sticking to the 'alternative' roles. Stone is alright as well, though not as memorable. The celebrity cameo of Bill Murray is actually amazing, particularly in the fact that he agreed to do it, and the script and the direction are both stand-out fantastic. The choreography of some of the fight scenes was also brilliant, particularly in the supermarket scene. I really enjoy this new style of film-making that involves placing text and graphics over the scene in a very clever way, and this is a very good example of that technique in action. There was a little something missing that I can't quite put my finger on, but in general this was a very good little movie with all the right notes - highs, lows, uplifting human drama and lots of good, old-fashioned gore. 4/5
#3 - NINE
Stars - Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren, Nicole Kidman, etc etc, I could go on for hours
Director - Rob Marshall
Memorable Quote - 'What would you like to see that I haven't already shown you?'
Review - One thing you can always say about Daniel Day-Lewis is that he is a brilliant character actor. Who can forget the powerful, callous Daniel Plainview, or the gang leader Bill Cutting, once seen? He is also very selective in the roles he takes... which is why this movie is so odd. It's terrible. Day-Lewis is brilliant, yes, of course, but the rest of the film? Dench is far too English to play a French woman, Fergie does not even look like Fergie, all of the songs go on for far too long, all of the dance sequences are boring, and the storyline is barely present throughout the film at all! Day-Lewis being great is literally the only plus point! I saw a lot of good press for 'Nine' when it first came out, and I was expecting this year's 'Chicago'... but what I got with this film was just another 'Dreamgirls'. 1/5
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