Harry Brown is the story of an elderly widower and former marine reaching his breaking point when his best friend is murdered. Violent, rough and painting a true to life picture of society as it is today.
Michael Caine does well in the title role and also Emily Mortimer give a good performance. Several of the young gang members are also very realistic in their parts, doing a lot to help darkening the picture.
A movie well worth its time, while there's still something lacking in both story, editing and maybe especially when it comes to the police operations. It takes away from what it could have been, but there is still few and far apart doing these kind of pictures better.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is the final chapter in the Millennium-Trilogy following The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. While the first one was well worth its time, despite being very long, the second chapter was downhill and not that entertaining. Sadly this final chapter continues the downfall.
This movie is not only the weakest in the Trilogy, but its also not worth making a movie of the story left to tell. Its a wrap up chapter the author should have kept as an epilog in his second book. Unlike the first two books this Trilogy is based on, I haven't read the final book. It doesn't help as it doesn't warrant a movie, and at least not such a long one with about its 145 minutes runtime. Almost two and a half hours I'll never get back.
This movie is not only the weakest in the Trilogy, but its also not worth making a movie of the story left to tell. Its a wrap up chapter the author should have kept as an epilog in his second book. Unlike the first two books this Trilogy is based on, I haven't read the final book. It doesn't help as it doesn't warrant a movie, and at least not such a long one with about its 145 minutes runtime. Almost two and a half hours I'll never get back.
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Blind Side (2009)
Sandra Bullock have only hours ago got her best leading actress Oscar for her part in The Blind Side, and accidentally it was next on my to watch list. I'm not convinced she deserved her Oscar, but as I haven't seen any better female roles from the last year I'm not ruling it out either as this was no doubt the best performance I've ever seen from her. There's actually quite a lot of moments in this movie. Moments were she makes us understand very well how her character feels without having to spell it out, over-act or spend any other easy fixes to cover herself. That's acting, and this time she actually does more of it than usual. All About Steve was on the other end of the scale, as many might remember.
Besides watching the movie, I've also managed to revisit it in large parts and re-revisit a lot of the important scenes in the few hours past by since the Oscars were delivered. Much like Whip It, this is a movie that grows on you without really being especially strong to begin with. The Blind Side is nothing less than a good-mood-pill of a movie. It reminds us there's good people still left in the world, that sometimes fairy tales comes true and there's hope left no matter how dark everything might seem.
No surprise I'm a fan of getting such stories served every once in a while. It goes well along with my taste for romance and happy endings. The movie is flawed in several ways. The story ain't focused enough, sometimes you feel they can't possibly be true to the story it's based on and maybe just a little to often they all seem too happily together as a family. Well. It's all true, but there's a bigger picture here. And in that frame, The Blind Side scores higher than most. I highly recommend this as a well preserved snack until you are in desperate need for a 2 hour cheer up. Then you can pop this into your DVD, Blu-Ray or whatever you use these days, and instantly regain faith in humanity.
Besides Bullock doing a much better role than seen before, I'll also take the time to mention that while Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron and Jae Head does well to make moments as well as the Tuohy-family, I think especially Lily Collins should be praised for her supporting role. I can't seem to remember her from her two 90210-episodes, but I'll most definitely be looking for her next roles. Also Bates and Dickens have good smaller supporting roles.
Besides watching the movie, I've also managed to revisit it in large parts and re-revisit a lot of the important scenes in the few hours past by since the Oscars were delivered. Much like Whip It, this is a movie that grows on you without really being especially strong to begin with. The Blind Side is nothing less than a good-mood-pill of a movie. It reminds us there's good people still left in the world, that sometimes fairy tales comes true and there's hope left no matter how dark everything might seem.
No surprise I'm a fan of getting such stories served every once in a while. It goes well along with my taste for romance and happy endings. The movie is flawed in several ways. The story ain't focused enough, sometimes you feel they can't possibly be true to the story it's based on and maybe just a little to often they all seem too happily together as a family. Well. It's all true, but there's a bigger picture here. And in that frame, The Blind Side scores higher than most. I highly recommend this as a well preserved snack until you are in desperate need for a 2 hour cheer up. Then you can pop this into your DVD, Blu-Ray or whatever you use these days, and instantly regain faith in humanity.
Besides Bullock doing a much better role than seen before, I'll also take the time to mention that while Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron and Jae Head does well to make moments as well as the Tuohy-family, I think especially Lily Collins should be praised for her supporting role. I can't seem to remember her from her two 90210-episodes, but I'll most definitely be looking for her next roles. Also Bates and Dickens have good smaller supporting roles.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Up in the Air (2009)
Up in the Air is one of those dark comedies that obviously goes over my head or misses completely on my radar. It really wasn't very good, at least not worthy of all those Oscar nominations it got. Clooney didn't do that well, it wasn't that well directed, the screenplay was nowhere that good, it wasn't close to the best picture of the year and Vera Farmiga didn't do a supporting actress role worthy of the nomination. Anna Kendrick's nomination as actress in supporting role was on the other hand well deserved. Her performance is about the only thing I'll take with me from this movie.
At least her performance is the only thing I'll remember with only delight and no bitter taste. This movie got some really great scenes and it does tell a bit about the society today, but overall it's too much downtime, too weak commenting on the society it tries to reflect and a leading story quite well suited to go untold.
On the other hand. Somebody should probably give me an intro to dark comedy and satire. It seems like most movies getting a lot of support in those genres, strikes out with me.
At least her performance is the only thing I'll remember with only delight and no bitter taste. This movie got some really great scenes and it does tell a bit about the society today, but overall it's too much downtime, too weak commenting on the society it tries to reflect and a leading story quite well suited to go untold.
On the other hand. Somebody should probably give me an intro to dark comedy and satire. It seems like most movies getting a lot of support in those genres, strikes out with me.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Fantastic Mr. Fox is Wes Anderson's stop motion take, and a widely acclaimed one. I can only agree so much, as I'm not as charmed by their humor and not as impressed by their story.
The beginning is brilliant and I wished it would go on in the same style, but some short-cuts, some lame scenery below the surface and something I can only imagine is dark humor managed to get me checking out my watch more than once.
It's still probably the best animation of 2009 as I wasn't very impressed by Up either, but in the end I felt they could have taken some other choices and made this the classic it could have been. Or maybe it's just my sense of humor that really isn't worth much.
The beginning is brilliant and I wished it would go on in the same style, but some short-cuts, some lame scenery below the surface and something I can only imagine is dark humor managed to get me checking out my watch more than once.
It's still probably the best animation of 2009 as I wasn't very impressed by Up either, but in the end I felt they could have taken some other choices and made this the classic it could have been. Or maybe it's just my sense of humor that really isn't worth much.
Twilight: New Moon (2009)
New Moon is the second chapter to Twilight, but not half the movie the first was. The story isn't half as focused, the progression is awful and the side-stories doesn't really interest the audience at all. Whatever twists they think they came with, was highly predictable and whether or not that's the books mistake or the director's or screenwriter's, it's all downhill from the first moviechapter of this saga.
The acting seems even worse and uninspired, and looking at the story they are about to act I can't blame them. Like I mentioned in my Twilight-review I'm not exactly their target audience, but while I fully enjoyed the first chapter they've completely missed on this second in my eyes.
I was actually bored for most of the movie. I can understand why a book series would take this direction, but for a movie it's a completely waste of time. They haven't been able to show the affects on Bella without bore their audience, and then there's little comfort in the main character being bored as well. I guess the only reason I even give this rating is the fact I've had the first chapter in mind and I'm now also up to date for a third chapter. If they fail as miserably then again I'll not be around for a fourth if they make one.
The acting seems even worse and uninspired, and looking at the story they are about to act I can't blame them. Like I mentioned in my Twilight-review I'm not exactly their target audience, but while I fully enjoyed the first chapter they've completely missed on this second in my eyes.
I was actually bored for most of the movie. I can understand why a book series would take this direction, but for a movie it's a completely waste of time. They haven't been able to show the affects on Bella without bore their audience, and then there's little comfort in the main character being bored as well. I guess the only reason I even give this rating is the fact I've had the first chapter in mind and I'm now also up to date for a third chapter. If they fail as miserably then again I'll not be around for a fourth if they make one.
Twilight (2008)
Writer: Screenplay: Melissa Rosenberg Novel: Stephenie Meyer
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Cam Gigandet, Ashley Greene, Christian Serratos, Anna Kendrick, Nikki Reed, Taylor Lautner, Kellan Lutz, Jackson Rathborne,
Genre: Teen, Fantasy, Drama, Romance
It's been a while since I watched it, but as I'm about to review the sequel, I might as well sum up my thoughts about the first movie in the Twilight saga. Might also mention I haven't read the books they're based on.
I enjoyed this one. The story came along in focused tempo, the characters was build up nicely and the entire fantasy element of it wasn't out of control. As long as you buy the premises, the story manage to follow up without taking large detours or jump from a storyline to another.
Kristen Stewart is one of my favorite actresses, but here she doesn't really get too much to work with. Same goes for most of the supporting cast as well, but in this kind of a story the acting abilities doesn't really need to be as sharp as in others. An Enjoyable fairytale.
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