Category: Movies

Our weekend plans got rained out (actually more like flooded out). We were heading to Berkeley Castle in Glouchester for the Joust Festival www.joust.info
So what is one to do on a rainy day, with a mediaeval costume already paid for in honour of the Joust. Well, I can tell you now that spending the day at the movies comes to mind, but sure as heck not while wearing my mediaeval dress. I wore that around the house last night!
So this afternoon we headed into town to watch the new Transformers movie. OK so we were feeling a bit “movie deprived” and had to see anything. Let me tell you it is a guaranteed good time movie. Far removed from the disgrace that the first movie was, this was fantastic. Graphics are incredible, music totally cool, acting more than adequate for a kids movie, storyline that was actually understandable and finally not chessy in any way! It is very rare that I would even consider buying a soundtrack to a movie (I think the last one was Top Gun) but this rocked. 8 out of 10.

Harry Potter on the other hand – very dark and could I say, rather boring. I think I am going through the motions here as I have seen all the others. It is kind of a new Stars Wars situation. You have invested time in the previous movies so you are just hoping to get to the end and complete the series. This Potter movie very much felt like a filler waiting to get to the real one to end it all. Bring the end on quickly. 5 out of 10.

Having gone out for lunch at the St Nicholas Markets this week I decided to be a bit adventurous. My first Caribbean meal – Curry Goat with spinach.
My verdict – delicious. Far nicer than the nasty billy goat we had for Christmas lunch one year in NZ. Two days in and not sick yet so this is a good sign. The meat was tender and mild tasting, with more of a beef flavour than anything else.

Tonight we also went to see Die Hard 4.0. As expected John McClane has everything thrown at him yet again by the baddies and comes out looking pretty trashed but truimphing over the bad dudes. Lots of explosions, great one liners and great aircraft action with a bit of CCR thrown in. That’s Creedance Clearwater Revival for those of you not in the know. My verdict – 8 out of 10. Great nonsensical, blockbuster, “explosions for the sake of it” movie at its best.

Ok, so some things will never change no matter where we are. Even though I am sure there are plenty of other things we could be spending our money on, there is one thing we must get in on a weekly basis – movies.
So far we have seen Pirates of the Caribbean – At Worlds End, Ocean’s 13 and today, the Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer. Garrison and I used to listen to our record of the Fantastic Four with his fav character being Ben (The Thing) and mine was the Torch (with the cool “flame on”).
Pirates was a bit of a let down, although a third instalment always bodes ill. In short the review would read, far too long and seemingly centered on one of the least interesting characters (the chick). However the intricate plot was not hard to follow (as per other reviewers statements), the graphics were totally cool and the ending not a happy one really and that always surprises seeing as we are so accustomed to these. In all probably a 5 out of 10.
Ocean’s 13 was not as well done as the first or second but kept my interest all the way through. The “reveal” of how they did it was unexciting as there wasn’t anything to “reveal” as it was pretty transparent. The pairing of Pitt and Clooney is always great as they work really well together. Thankfully no chicks to centre on or pull away from the story. I would give it a 6 out of 10.
Finally, F4. Graphics were awesome, storyline really good except for the wedding palava continuing through and ruining a really good ride. Seriously need to replace the Invisible Woman as her acting is just that – invisible. Is she using botox because the lack of expression seems to be a give away? Same goes for Julian McMahon. Again the graphics were incredible. Go Weta! I would rate this a 7 out of 10 and an enjoyable rainy afternoon activity.

Starring Nicolas Cage and supported by Ellen Burstyn and a small part by Leelee Sobieski this movie had plenty of promise. Cage plays a police officer that is called to a secluded island to investigate the case of a missing local girl. He quickly learns that the island dwellers are harbouring dark secrets and races to uncover the mystery of the disapperance before something further happens. I think as movie goers we have been so moulded into a particular style of story telling that we are disappointed when we don’t get the expected result. Without giving anything away, this movie left me disappointed but more so at the recognition that I am one of those that have been moulded to that style of story telling. If you think that you can work out the plot, go for it, I didn’t even see it coming! 5 out of 10.

Rainy Saturday afternoon with a cracker of a cold. Great place to go and relax with no effort except to watch the wonder of film. This weeks movie: Perfume. Based on the best selling novel “Perfume. The story of a murderer” written by German, Patrick Suskind. Must say I never knew it was a novel so I’m keen to read this now. The movie is set in 18th century France opening in the squallid, overwhelming stench of the Paris fish markets where Jean-Baptiste Grenouille comes into the world. Even at birth you see that this child has a special drive to live and a sense of smell that is already developing. Orphaned not long after birth Jean-Baptiste continues to explore and develop his gift to the detriment of social skills and limited speech. Eventually he is sold into a tannery where this takes him to see the wonders of perfumerys in Paris. He then becomes fasinated with the natural fragrance of a particular beautiful young women of which he inadvertantly kills in his desire to languish in her scent. As her scent dissipates with the fading warmth of her body this propels Jean-Baptiste forward in his savant-like single mindedness into the world of perfume determined to learn the secrets of this craft, wishing to learn how to capture the scent of all things. If he can capture the scent of all things, then never again would he lose such a wonderous frangrance as hers. Finally he discovers the secret and begins his murderous ramage, no compassion, no realisation of his victims as being human, increasingly possessed with the determination to create the ultimate perfume. Never before have I experienced a movie that could so intensely convey “smell” through the art of film. A movie that provides a clear understanding of a characters thoughts or motivations without speech. One scene that clearly stands out as an example is when Jean-Baptiste realises that the deceased young ladies scent is fading. The building frustration he has and the reason behind his angst is so clear yet not one word was spoken. This movie disturbed me in many ways next continues to fasinate me as I cycle back through the scenes. The use of intense close ups are often disturbing due to the subject but this effect is also used on stunning visuals such as intense red hair, white skin, delicate droplets of oil. The mere fact that I have been writing this review for the past hour surely tells me that this movie stands out. Would I see it again. Possibly not, however I will read the book and will continue to ponder the images and story. My rating: 7.6
Main character connection – although you never identify with Jean-Baptiste that is because he is almost inhuman, this was incredibly believable (9)
Supporting characters – many of them are all stunning especially Alan Rickman (7)
Location – from the putrid streets of Paris to the lush and colourful location of Grasse in Provence, all incredible (8)
Music score – perfect especially when creating his perfumes (8)
Believability – disturbingly so (7)
Intelligence factor – (7)

Steve and I can’t see to come to a consensus on this one. I really enjoyed it, on the edge of my seat the whole time, really drawn into the movie. However, we have since decided that we need to come up with a number of categories then get the average across these. Why? Because I seem to give a great rating to all movies even though there may be some aspects to it that I didn’t like. For example, the thriller content was great, the lead character believable but distant therefore a connection wasn’t really made. The other characters were non impacting even though there were some great celebs involved in the project. So the categories will be: Main character connection, supporting characters, location, music score, believability, intelligence factor. So here we go – Main character (6), supporting characters (3), location (5) loved seeing the different aspects of New Orleans, Music (1) can hardly remember any at all, believability (5) the idea was great but didn’t go into enough and follow the technology enough to get totally involved in it, seemed like it wasn’t a big part of the move, intelligence factor (4). Giving this movie a total score of 4 out of 10.

I must say that I probably hadn’t read the blurb on this movie well before I went nor seen a trailer for it. I thought it was going to be a action thriller. It would fit into neither category. At this stage I am still pondering over this movie even now at 5 days out from it. This has to be the longest time I have bothered thinking over a movie so at least this is a good sign. Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt, although in the movie, weren’t the core focus. The movie revolves around 4 groups of people or individuals and how one incident affects their lives in differing ways even though they are in different parts of the world. The more I think about it the more I like the idea of the story but it left me rather depressed purely because of the connections made with the characters. This again, is also a good result as it means they were incredibly believable. I also walked away being more self aware of how judging a situation without really listening (with the ears and eyes) to the differences be it cultural/physical/language, can lead down a path of misdirection. While still mulling over it, at this stage I would give it 7 stars out of 10.