Fuck This Film

The bastards of Hollywood have done it again. After Indiana Jones, Die Hard and Star Wars another franchise has been run into the ground (I don't count Terminator 3). McG really proves that he is a worthless director who should go back to making Charlie's Angels AND change his fucking name.
I mean I tried...I tried hard, I really did but after days of lying to myself and fooling myself that this had actually been an OK film, my mind had had enough and I had to give in. This is not the film that I had waited for, this is not the future that Sarah Connor had warned us about...although someone should have warned us about the garbage that we had to endure.
But why was it so horrendous? Was it the poorly written script riddled with plot holes, was it the lack of character development or was it Christian Bale's Batman voice?
It was all of the above and more. From silly one liners to a confusing story line which screws up the Terminator world, which had been so wonderfully set up during T1 and T2.
There are so many things horribly wrong with this film that I wont even bother listing them.
The main problem with the film (apart from letting McG direct it) is that it tries to bring together two story lines in one, we get very little character development (especially from Bale) and therefore don't develope an emotional relation to any of the characters.
There is no epic battle, John Connor comes across as a "subway crazy" who may or may not have throat cancer and the film just has too many ridiculous scenes which destroy any chance of taking this piece of shit seriously.
The Terminator franbchise ended with T2 and sadly it remains dead, even the Dark Knight couldn't revive it. They should have just released the trailer as the feature film.
No wonder Bale flipped out.

Marco say something about this please

Congratulations SIR Christopher Lee

Just a quick congratulation to the newly Knighted Sir Christopher Lee. A brilliant decision by the queen. Christopher Lee has been around for ages and has been my favorite bond villian for some time now. Most people will probably know Sir Christopher as Saruman and/or Count Doku (although we should all forget those movies) and of course as the one and only Dracula (yes he defeats Bela Lugosi in my books). Thruought his career Lee has played a huge part in the horror genre especially due to his frequent work in Hammer films (which I urge everyone to see).
Congratulations to Scaramanga, the one man that could have defeated Bond.

Southland Tales

It's not good...really. It tries hard, too hard and ends up being a jumble of ideas. Skip it...really.

The Mist

This film made me love Thomas Jane. Many familiar faces appear, including Mystic River's Marcia Gay Harding, W.'s Toby Jones, and Andre Braugher. The cast is filled with prominent actors playing minor roles, which really rounds the quality of acting out to a solid level of decency. Even American Pie's Sherminator is in this. (His name is Chris Owen).

The plot: A mysterious mist covers a small town, and citizens are trapped in a supermarket. Mysterious monsters appear. We are told the military has been experimenting with unknown motives in the local mountains. We are reminded that the fog that preceded the storm was unexpected and strange. Furthermore, we are constantly involved with the characters in this supermarket, and therefore really begin to care about Thomas Jane's character, and his son - even more so once we are presented with the deep psychotic nature of many of the other characters - and how influential they become. Basically, it's just a really effective movie, tense and entertaining. It feels like a good old basic Sci-Fi story, but much more humanized than I'd expected.

If you like thrillers, horror films, Thomas Jane, or Half-Life (the story is basically the same, the POV being the only difference) - then watch this film. The ending is very interesting.

Watch This!: The Company

I remember when I first heard about "The Good Shepard", a DeNiro directed C.I.A. epic. Sadly what we got was a 2 and something hour long film that just dragged to the finish. Luckily I discovered The Company, a tv mini series starring Michael Keaton (to name one), at a blockbuster.
The series begins in Berlin, the Iron Curtain is slowly closing and the C.I.A. is desperately trying to gain valuable information through contacts in East Berlin. From then on the show follows the C.I.A. and KGB through a 40 year period with the Cold War and the slow demise of the Soviet Union as a backdrop.
The show is what "The Good Shepard" should have been, well paced and entertaining from start to finish. The end lets you feel as if you have taken this 40 year journey with the characters.
The ensemble includes: Michael Keaton, Alfred Molina, Chris O"Donnell.
If you liked Band Of Brothers or you love espionage thrillers you will love this show.
WATCH IT.

Sam Rockwell Yelling in Space...AWESOME

The Tribeca Film Festival has ended. Although not majorily excited about this years line up, I was able to see the one film that I had been excited for ever since I heard the first Sundance buzz, Duncan Jones' 'Moon' starring Sam Rockwell. I had read a lot of positive reviews and I was not gonna miss the first showing in New York. Naturally I went in with very high expectations.....and I was not let down. This movie is fucking incredible....I would go so far as saying that this is my favorite film of 2009 (Public Enemies has to be amazing if it wants to compete with this film.) This being the first showing during the TFF, the audience was treated to a Q and A after the film which featured Duncan Jones and Sam Rockwell, as well as Nathan Parker (the writer) and the producer. A fun side note, Duncan Jones' father was also in attendance (David Bowie).

Sam Rockwell plays Astronaut Sam Bell who has been working on the Moon for the last three years alongside his robot GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey).

That is all you need to know about the plot. This film is just amazing, Sam Rockwell AGAIN proves that he deserves to be in more movies, basically being the only actor in this film. After the first 5 minutes you develope a connection with this character which lasts thruought the film. Although I knew that Rockwell was in attendance I still believed that this was not Rockwell but Sam Bell who was waiting to return home.
The film is shot beautifully and it is amazing to see what Jones does with a 5 million dollar budget, showing us that we don't always have to see gigantic explosions in space to make a scifi film entertaining.

The film is paced excellently,  giving us longer emotional scenes but also quick back and forth dialogue which adds some comedy to the overall rather saddening film.

I will not discuss the film any further, because it would just spoil the film for you. 

WATCH IT....it will change your life for the better.

Writer's Block

Barton Fink tells the story of a New York theatre writer in the 1940s, who gets an opportunity to run off to Hollywood within the first ten minutes of the film. The titular character is played by John Turturro, and man is he good. He set his bar really high in Miller's Crossing, but does a good job at playing eccentric and insecure here.

Fink is a quiet writer who warily accepts the assignment to pen a film about a wrestler, and checks into a hotel in Los Angeles. The bellboy is played by Steve Buscemi - a little treat for Coen fans. What I loved about the set up of this move to Hollywood is that you really get to see how Barton Fink reacts to the eccentricity and strangeness of the place, and the characters he has to interact with to accomplish this task of writing a wrestling picture. Everybody around him is like a bizarre alien to him, and there is some great comedy to be found in that - which somebody like Joel Coen really knows who to play up.

John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, Tony Shalhoub, and Jon Polito, all directed by the Coen Brothers. What more could you ask for?