Stuff wot I has watched recently!
Nov. 2nd, 2010 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beckymonsterSo... now the The Wedding Event Of The Decade is now over... onto other, more interesting stuff like movies!
Caveat Emptor - As ever, these are my thoughts (shallow, strange and downright perverse as they are) so please feel free to disagree or point and laugh as you will;)
Womb - Director: Benedek Fliegauf. Starring: Evan Green (Kingdom of Heaven, Casino Royale), Matt Smith Doctor Who
So, I paid to see this because Matt Smith is in it. So did quite a few other Whovians too (waves at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vayshti and the PLB). So far, so ordinary. I think that's a fair assessment of who (sic) would *actually* watch this film. Sci-Fi geeks.
Basic plot is Rebecca and Thomas meet as children - she goes to Tokyo with her family but she returns as a grown up woman (with a *really* esoteric job!) to the bleak coastline where Thomas (Matt Smith) still lives.
They take their first steps on a new relationship when Thomas gets run over by aplot device a car. So, Rebecca decides to bear a clone of Thomas. As you do.
I think I'm making it very clear my feelings on this film. Yes, it takes the stories of women like Diane Blood (google it) a step further but... it just struck me as being an incredibly *selfish* thing to do. And yes, it does end up going there.
If they had done something a little more... 'unconventional' (for an indie film - because boy, is *this* full of indie cliche - 'bleak' covers a *lot* of ground!) then perhaps I may have liked it more. I don't regret going to see it but... it did little for me... Yes, even Matt Smith's naked arse didn't do much for me!
Red Eye - Director: Wes Craven. Starring Rachel McAdam (Sherlock Holmes, Cillian Murphy (Inception) and Brian Cox (no, not the cute one - the other one you see in X2!)
Watched this on DVD - was a nice little thriller. Not to mention, the only film by Wes Craven that you're ever likely to get me to watch willingly. The main characters have chemistry, the story keeps your attention and hell, there's even a conversation between two female characters that's not about a man! Oh and the actress who played K'Ehleyr in Star Trek:The Next Generation was in it too. Nerdy monster is nerdy!
It Happened One Night - Director: Frank Capra. Starring: Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.
Saw this at the BFI - when they say they don't make 'em like they way they used to - this is what they are talking about. This is the grand-daddy of all romantic comedies. Old School it may be but you know what they say and it goes double for this film. Nearly every damn romantic comedy out there today could do with taking a lesson (or seven!) from this film. If they did - I might actually watch them rather than plumping straight for the action film!
Easy A - Director: Will Gluck. Starring: Emma Stone (Spiderman Reboot, Zombieland)
Saw this at the cinema (yes, I am trying to play catch up!) and really enjoyed it. A teen comedy with it's brain in the right place! Stone plays Olive, a young woman who's little white lie grows and grows until it takes on a life of it's own. The film skillfully dissects the standards placed on women by society and shows up some of the more 'extreme' aspects of US culture as well i.e. the God Squad too. Stone is definitely one to watch.
28 Days Later - Director: Danny Boyle. Starring: Cillian Murphy (Inception), Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Carribean), Brendan Gleeson (Kingdom of Heaven), Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who)
Confession time - I don't *do* horror films. Alien is about my limit. I r a big wuss. Not to mention that don't take kindly to scares of any sort (it's a lot of fun to watch, I'm sure, me jumping three foot in the air and cowering away in a flaily mess at the scares, but not for me)
So - what made me sit on Sunday night, Halloween and watch this? Well, this post should give you a clue or three and because if I can't watch 'zombie' films on Halloween, when can I?
Anti-vivisectionists (inadvertently) release a Rage plague when freeing chimps from a lab. The plague turns the UK from it's usual busy self to an apocalyptic wasteland inside a month. Into this wasteland wakes Jim (Murphy putting in a magnificent performance) from a coma after a really bad traffic accident, with zero clue as to what the bloody hell is going on.
Jim's wander through the deserted streets of London is the stuff to give anyone who has lived/worked/visited London the heebies. There is *no one* on the streets, bar this disorientated young man with a half shaved head, pilched surgical greens and a plastic bag filled with drinks cans. It's just so... frightening. London is *always* busy and to see it so deserted is... yeah!
And that's before Jim crosses the Infected themselves. Those bastards can *move* as Jim finds out almost to his cost but not before Selena and Mark save him from a fate worse than death or are they?
I *loved* this movie. It made me cry (I'm never going to be able to hear 'Abide With Me' without thinking 'don't wake up') made me think that I must have been a good fangirl in a previous life, what with the amount of time Cillian Murphy spends with no shirt (and in at least two scenes, not a stitch) on. He spends almost as much time as Hugh Jackman does in the first X-Men film in as few clothes as possible. They sure do make 'em pale (and hot!) on the west coast of Ireland.
And yes, I am likely to go to that special hell for wanting to slash Jim and Major Henry (Christopher Eccleston)... but then I'm already halfway there over Mr Murphy and Dr/Prof Cox and the very drunken night...
Other things I loved - Selena was awesome and wonderful - even in her darkest moments. Frank ended up kicking me in the (metaphorical) chest. Hannah was ace. Major Henry freaked me right out with his soft, plummy voice speaking those terrible words.
Did I mention the music? Wonderful! Although the bit with the eyes? Was the only time I turned away shuddering - which for me is saying a *lot*. It's taken me nearly two days to stop thinking about this movie - not least how the hell they did those shots of London! My copy is as bare of extras as Jim is at the beginning of the film - so this shall be remedied!
So - yes, I now have another favourite director, of whom I will go see without reservation (Christopher Nolan is one, as is Peter Jackson) although I'm sure I'll be shuddering during bits of 127 Hours too!
In related news - Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch will be (swapping the roles on different nights) Dr Frankenstein and the Monster for Danny Boyle's production of Frankenstien next year at the National Theatre. This sounds like it will be good!
Caveat Emptor - As ever, these are my thoughts (shallow, strange and downright perverse as they are) so please feel free to disagree or point and laugh as you will;)
Womb - Director: Benedek Fliegauf. Starring: Evan Green (Kingdom of Heaven, Casino Royale), Matt Smith Doctor Who
So, I paid to see this because Matt Smith is in it. So did quite a few other Whovians too (waves at
vayshti and the PLB). So far, so ordinary. I think that's a fair assessment of who (sic) would *actually* watch this film. Sci-Fi geeks.Basic plot is Rebecca and Thomas meet as children - she goes to Tokyo with her family but she returns as a grown up woman (with a *really* esoteric job!) to the bleak coastline where Thomas (Matt Smith) still lives.
They take their first steps on a new relationship when Thomas gets run over by a
I think I'm making it very clear my feelings on this film. Yes, it takes the stories of women like Diane Blood (google it) a step further but... it just struck me as being an incredibly *selfish* thing to do. And yes, it does end up going there.
If they had done something a little more... 'unconventional' (for an indie film - because boy, is *this* full of indie cliche - 'bleak' covers a *lot* of ground!) then perhaps I may have liked it more. I don't regret going to see it but... it did little for me... Yes, even Matt Smith's naked arse didn't do much for me!
Red Eye - Director: Wes Craven. Starring Rachel McAdam (Sherlock Holmes, Cillian Murphy (Inception) and Brian Cox (no, not the cute one - the other one you see in X2!)
Watched this on DVD - was a nice little thriller. Not to mention, the only film by Wes Craven that you're ever likely to get me to watch willingly. The main characters have chemistry, the story keeps your attention and hell, there's even a conversation between two female characters that's not about a man! Oh and the actress who played K'Ehleyr in Star Trek:The Next Generation was in it too. Nerdy monster is nerdy!
It Happened One Night - Director: Frank Capra. Starring: Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.
Saw this at the BFI - when they say they don't make 'em like they way they used to - this is what they are talking about. This is the grand-daddy of all romantic comedies. Old School it may be but you know what they say and it goes double for this film. Nearly every damn romantic comedy out there today could do with taking a lesson (or seven!) from this film. If they did - I might actually watch them rather than plumping straight for the action film!
Easy A - Director: Will Gluck. Starring: Emma Stone (Spiderman Reboot, Zombieland)
Saw this at the cinema (yes, I am trying to play catch up!) and really enjoyed it. A teen comedy with it's brain in the right place! Stone plays Olive, a young woman who's little white lie grows and grows until it takes on a life of it's own. The film skillfully dissects the standards placed on women by society and shows up some of the more 'extreme' aspects of US culture as well i.e. the God Squad too. Stone is definitely one to watch.
28 Days Later - Director: Danny Boyle. Starring: Cillian Murphy (Inception), Naomie Harris (Pirates of the Carribean), Brendan Gleeson (Kingdom of Heaven), Christopher Eccleston (Doctor Who)
Confession time - I don't *do* horror films. Alien is about my limit. I r a big wuss. Not to mention that don't take kindly to scares of any sort (it's a lot of fun to watch, I'm sure, me jumping three foot in the air and cowering away in a flaily mess at the scares, but not for me)
So - what made me sit on Sunday night, Halloween and watch this? Well, this post should give you a clue or three and because if I can't watch 'zombie' films on Halloween, when can I?
Anti-vivisectionists (inadvertently) release a Rage plague when freeing chimps from a lab. The plague turns the UK from it's usual busy self to an apocalyptic wasteland inside a month. Into this wasteland wakes Jim (Murphy putting in a magnificent performance) from a coma after a really bad traffic accident, with zero clue as to what the bloody hell is going on.
Jim's wander through the deserted streets of London is the stuff to give anyone who has lived/worked/visited London the heebies. There is *no one* on the streets, bar this disorientated young man with a half shaved head, pilched surgical greens and a plastic bag filled with drinks cans. It's just so... frightening. London is *always* busy and to see it so deserted is... yeah!
And that's before Jim crosses the Infected themselves. Those bastards can *move* as Jim finds out almost to his cost but not before Selena and Mark save him from a fate worse than death or are they?
I *loved* this movie. It made me cry (I'm never going to be able to hear 'Abide With Me' without thinking 'don't wake up') made me think that I must have been a good fangirl in a previous life, what with the amount of time Cillian Murphy spends with no shirt (and in at least two scenes, not a stitch) on. He spends almost as much time as Hugh Jackman does in the first X-Men film in as few clothes as possible. They sure do make 'em pale (and hot!) on the west coast of Ireland.
And yes, I am likely to go to that special hell for wanting to slash Jim and Major Henry (Christopher Eccleston)... but then I'm already halfway there over Mr Murphy and Dr/Prof Cox and the very drunken night...
Other things I loved - Selena was awesome and wonderful - even in her darkest moments. Frank ended up kicking me in the (metaphorical) chest. Hannah was ace. Major Henry freaked me right out with his soft, plummy voice speaking those terrible words.
Did I mention the music? Wonderful! Although the bit with the eyes? Was the only time I turned away shuddering - which for me is saying a *lot*. It's taken me nearly two days to stop thinking about this movie - not least how the hell they did those shots of London! My copy is as bare of extras as Jim is at the beginning of the film - so this shall be remedied!
So - yes, I now have another favourite director, of whom I will go see without reservation (Christopher Nolan is one, as is Peter Jackson) although I'm sure I'll be shuddering during bits of 127 Hours too!
In related news - Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch will be (swapping the roles on different nights) Dr Frankenstein and the Monster for Danny Boyle's production of Frankenstien next year at the National Theatre. This sounds like it will be good!
