365 Day Unseen Movie Marathon – Day 50 – BLOOD SIMPLE (1984)

Feb 19 2011 Published by under Film

Title: Blood Simple

Directed by: Joel Coen

Written by: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Current Flickchart position:  #321 of 1362 overall.  My #6 film, of 18, from the year 1984.

What It’s About:
A rich but jealous man (Dan Hedaya) hires a private investigator (M. Emmet Walsh) to kill his cheating wife (Frances McDormand) and her new man (John Getz).

General Comments:
Another day another neo-noir.  And surprise surprise it’s actually a good Coen brothers film.  Best of all it’s an unpretentious Coen brothers film, something I wasn’t sure existed, although it is their first film so maybe that trait developed after the release of Blood Simple.

Watch Blood Simple because of the seven Coen brothers films I’ve seen (Blood Simple, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou, No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, and True Grit) only True Grit, Fargo and No Country are better.  Then again, considering my feelings towards the Coens that’s probably not saying much.

Rating:  6.5/10

No responses yet

A 2nd poster for HANNA

Feb 16 2011 Published by under Film

Here’s the second poster for the awesome looking Hanna starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett.

No responses yet

365 Day Unseen Movie Marathon – Day 46 – KALIFORNIA (1993)

Feb 15 2011 Published by under Film

Title: Kalifornia

Directed by: Dominic Sena

Written by: Tim Metcalfe & Stephen Levy

Current Flickchart position:  #330 of 1359 overall.  My #8 film, of 46, from the year 1993.

What It’s About:
A journalist (David Duchovny) and his photographer girlfriend (Michelle Forbes) go on a tour of serial killer murder sites with two companions (Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis), unaware that one of them is a serial killer himself.

General Comments:
After watching Romeo Is Bleeding yesterday I decided to make this weeks movies all neo-noir films.  Kalifornia is fairly good but it just doesn’t reach the heights I was hoping for.  Juliette Lewis is good as the naive and slightly dumb Adele, and Brad Pitt is awesome as Early, but Duchovny and Forbes are both kinda underwhelming.  I did enjoy the fact that Kalifornia is a weird combination of thriller, crime, serial killer, road movie, and is infused with a dream like quality, all of which makes it sort of unique.

Watch Kalifornia to see Brad Pitt play a real bad guy really well.

Rating:  6/10

No responses yet

365 Day Unseen Movie Marathon – Day 36 – RED HILL (2010)

Feb 06 2011 Published by under Film

Title: Red Hill

Written and Directed by: Patrick Hughes

Current Flickchart position:  #603 of 1350 overall.  My #44 film, of 61, from the year 2010.

What It’s About:
A young police officer must survive his first day’s duty in a small country town.

General Comments:
A fairly decent revenge/thriller/western set in a small Australian town.  Ryan Kwanten is pretty good.  Steve Bisley too.  Overall it’s nothing special but does manage to continue the fairly good quality of recent Australian films.  Just don’t expect something of the quality of Animal Kingdom.

Watch Red Hill to see a good Australian modern western revenge flick.

Rating:  6/10

No responses yet

A new HANNA poster

Jan 26 2011 Published by under Film

What the title says.

Hanna is due to open on 8th April.

No responses yet

365 Day Unseen Movie Marathon – Day 24 – DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)

Jan 24 2011 Published by under Film

Title: Double Indemnity

Directed by: Billy Wilder

Written by: James M. Cain and Billy Wilder & Raymond Chandler

Current Flickchart position:  #228 of 1339 overall.  My #1 film, of 1, from the year 1944.

What It’s About:
An insurance rep (Fred MacMurray) lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme by a seductive housewife (Barbara Stanwyck) that arouses the suspicions of an insurance investigator (Edward G. Robinson).

General Comments:
The only other Billy Wilder film I’ve seen is Sunset Boulevard and that’s one truly great film.  It should come as no surprise that Double Indemnity is just as good.  I’m really gonna have to work my way through his other notable films because I have a feeling the vast majority of them will be as good as the two offerings I’ve now seen.  Aside from being a great example of film-noir, one of the main things which struck me was the quality of the acting.  It had none of that clunkiness which often plagues films from the 40′s and 50′s.  Everything was delivered with a smoothness that I’m unaccustomed to with older films, at least with my level of exposure to them.

Watch Double Indemnity to see a spectacularly great thriller/film-noir with brilliant performances from all three leads.

Rating:  8.5/10

No responses yet

Trailer for the one of a kind RUBBER

Jan 20 2011 Published by under Film

Simultaneously the dumbest and coolest looking film I’ve come across in ages, here’s the new trailer for Rubber.

Rubber is the story of Robert, an inanimate tire that has been abandoned in the desert, and suddenly and inexplicably comes to life.  As Robert roams the bleak landscape, he discovers that he possesses terrifying telepathic powers that give him the ability to destroy anything he wishes without having to move.  At first content to prey on small desert creatures and various discarded objects, his attention soon turns to humans, especially a beautiful and mysterious woman who crosses his path.  Leaving a swath of destruction across the desert landscape, Robert becomes a chaotic force to be reckoned with, and truly a movie villain for the ages.

Rubber is in theaters April 1st.

No responses yet

365 Day Unseen Movie Marathon – Day 2 – I SAW THE DEVIL (2010)

Jan 02 2011 Published by under Film

Title:  I Saw The Devil

Directed by:  Ji-Woon Kim

Written by:  Hoon-jung Park

Current Flickchart position:  #210 of 1316 overall.  My #7 film in 2010.

What It’s About:
Kyung-chul (Min-sik Choi) is a dangerous psychopath who kills for pleasure.  He has committed infernal serial murders in diabolic ways that one cannot even imagine and his victims range from young women to children.  One day, Joo-yeon (San-ha Oh), daughter of a retired police chief becomes his prey and is found dead in a horrific state.  Her fiance Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee), a top secret agent, decides to track down the murderer himself.  He promises himself that he will do everything in his power to take bloody vengeance against the killer, even if it means that he must become a monster himself to get his revenge.

General Comments:
What a fucking gloriously great South Korean ultraviolence revenge flick that makes the point that there is no winner when it comes to revenge.  Fantastic acting, great fight sequences and a shit ton of blood and gore.  A great thriller/drama that’s also one of the most beautifully shot films I’ve seen a long time.

Rating:  7.5/10

No responses yet

New poster for SALT

May 18 2010 Published by under Film

Here’s the new poster for Angelina Jolie’s upcoming action thriller Salt.

Synopsis:

As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt’s efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: “Who is Salt?”

I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while, how could you not when you have Angelina Jolie kicking ass with jet black hair, and the trailers have only heightened my anticipation for the flick.

Salt is due for release on July 23rd.

No responses yet

SHUTTER ISLAND review

Mar 30 2010 Published by under Film, Reviews

Written by: Dennis Lehane (novel) and Laeta Kalogridis
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Genre: Thriller, mystery, drama

My two weeks of legal training workshops, exams and hearings are now over so I have just a little time to sit down and actually do something for my site.  If there’s anyone out there that does visit my site and is still checking in (considering I haven’t updated in weeks) I really will try and post more stuff now that the intensive part of my training seems to be over.

Anyway, I managed to find some spare time last week and I finally got to see Shutter Island.  I was looking forward to it last year when I first saw the trailer and that anticipation didn’t die down even after it’s release date was shifted back.  Leonardo DiCaprio has reached that point in his career where I’ll watch just about anything he stars in, hell, I even sat through almost an hour of Revolutionary Road.  That’s how much I like him.

So as for the movie it was pretty damn awesome up until the twist…
SPOILER WARNING

5

4

3

2

1

Leo’s the patient.

I feel like 10 years ago this might have been a cool twist that left me awestruck and impressed, but now it just seems so tired.  I felt completely cheated by the whole thing in the end and I wouldn’t have thought that Scorsese or DiCaprio would have attached themselves to something so by the numbers.  It’s almost like that episode of Dallas where J.R. is shot but it’s all just a dream.

In my opinion I think the movie would have been far better if DiCaprio was just an FBI guy who is lured to the island in an effort to trap him and he has to solve the crime and escape.  And for the majority of the film that’s exactly what it is until it veers off into M. Night Shyamalan territory.  The trailer is far superior because the whole thing is based around the idea that DiCaprio goes to the island to solve a crime and is trapped there against his will.  There’s nothing in it that makes you think any different.

As you’d expect with a Scorsese flick all the performances were sublime, as was the cinematography and score, and for 90% of the film it was just about the perfect crime/mystery/thriller.  But that damn twist went and ruined everything.  All in all I was quite disappointed in Shutter Island because I was hoping for another knockout from Scorsese and DiCaprio who’ve been on a very impressive roll together.  I guess I’ll have to get my quality fix from DiCaprio from the upcoming Inception, which I have no doubt will be one of my favourite films of the year.

RATING: 6.5/10

CONCLUSION
I’ve spent about 400 words saying it, but the film would have been so much better without the twist.

No responses yet

« Newer posts Older posts »