500 Days of Summer

This is a film I have been looking forward to with joyful excitement for a long time. And I fucking Loved it. Once the film was over, I didn't want to leave my auditorium. I wanted to watch it again.

False Salvation

In retrospect, the build up to Terminator Salvation was brutally unfair. It felt like this could actually be Great. The weeks leading up to its release were riddled with exciting news, awesome posters and production stills, interviews that felt genuine, etc. It also looked good. And most importantly, even the script became promising. There was talk of Jonathan Nolan having some sort of creative control over it, even news of a substantial rewrite by him. All of this made me believe that this would definitely be of a particular level of quality. Christian Bale was involved, and he's an actor that challenges himself, picking roles that have some sort of emotional purpose and Life to them. All throughout pre and main production, McG was saying the right things. And I, Marco the Fool, was sold. I felt some sort of tiny amount of hope and chance that it could actually take advantage of this awesome plot. Terminators. The future war.

The result is, of course, an antonym translated version of the above paragraph. For some reason the finished product was a scathingly ridiculous piece of unemotional bullshit, riddled with way too many plotholes, way too little character development (I know we know these characters, but give us some reasons to care), and horribly written monologues. The machines capture Kyle Reese and use him to capture John Connor. Why? Kill Kyle Reese instead - John Connor would never have be born. Easy. Or how about the older Terminator model (Marcus Wright's) being more realistic and 'normal' than the newer model (Arnold's) ?. These things don't make any sense whatsoever, and ruin the film immediately.

Christian Bale, one of my favourite actors of our time, does nothing in this film. I don't even remember him well in it. Why? Because he was not really acting. He assumed an identity of complete seriousness, and differentiated his character's moods by altering the volume of his voice. There was no life in him - even when he was screaming his soul out through the screen at me.

But. Yes, McG films action well, and there's a cool Helicopter shot.

Besides that, though, I can't really recall much else to be exited about.

No rewatch worthy here.

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.