Yeah, I’ve been pretty far behind with this, but now that I have a little more free time, instead of playing catchup for a few weeks with single reviews of each film I will review all the ones of note that I saw here, these include Made In Dagenham, Red, Paranormal Activity 2 and Harry Potter And The Death Hallows Part 1. I did see The Social Network, but will “review” that with a top 10 of the year.
The 1968 strike at the Ford factory that lead to the Equal Pay Act is something that I knew nothing about and so I suppose I went to see this film to educate myself. The trailer had a couple of funny lines I suppose, but the credit; From The Director Of Calendar Girls didn’t exactly scream MUST SEE for me. However, along I went. As expected I was the only person in the audience who didn’t live through the period that the film explores. No matter. I settled into my seat for what was purported to be “The feelgood film of the year!”.
And I did feel good at the end. Every performance was strong, the script hit every emotional beat with gusto, and the period feel of the film was expertly designed. It felt ’60s, and I hope it gets at least an Oscar nod for art direction in that regard. Recent British films featuring strikes have been oddly feelgood, even if the strikes concerned did fail, such as in The Full Monty and Billy Elliot. In those two films the strikes were background noise, somewhat integral but not the story’s focus, which is probably why, despite them failing, the films still managed to elicit cheer.
With a successful strike (blatantly not a spoiler) as it’s focus this film is allowed to explore it, and it’s effects on the strikers more thoroughly, making the movie slightly more political than it’s forerunners. Nigel Cole directs with expert sheen, allowing the character’s cheery attitude to make even the dingy, leaking factory scenes seem as glamorous as when the same ladies stride through the houses of parliament. Not that there aren’t any heart wrenching scenes, conflict between the spouses adds to much of the emotional drama just as the film seems to be running out of steam.
The main problem I had with the film was how predictable it was. Despite a being somewhat original film, every beat could be predicted easily, the film worked hard to manipulate emotions and succeeded, despite it’s techniques being displayed obviously. So yeah, it was okay, a somewhat interesting examination of an event which I didn’t even realise had happened, entertaining enough, though not a must watch.
This film, RED, had a very exciting trailer, which included one of the best Bruce Willis being Bruce Willis moments ever. It looked action packed, entertaining, funnyish and entertaining. However the film didn’t even come close to matching the quality of the trailer. The concept, retired CIA assassins are flagged for death and must fight for their lives and prove their innocence is a great one if only for the fact that it offered us a scene where Helen Mirren mans a mini-gun. That moment, in fact, all of the action scenes in the film were entertaining, the airport grenade launcher shootout, the incredible stepping out of spinning car stunt and the intense scene that begins the action at Bruce Willis’ house were all edge of your seat brilliant/awesome.
But these moments were few and far between, sandwiched between an awful and quite creepy romance plot between Willis and a much younger girl. Why make a film about retired/aging agents and then choppily insert a much younger love interest in there, it doesn’t make sense and does a lot to derail the feel of the film. Deaths are handled casually, they don’t up the stakes or create any sense of urgency/emotion and a fair few of the gags fall flat.
Karl Urban does a fantastic job as the CIA yuppie hunting down the older agents and it was nice to see that Ernest Borgnine still has it, however RED never steps close to the films it’s characters would have inhabited twenty years ago. Not a terrible film by any means, just one which relies on familiarity rather than reinvention. Could have been so much more.
I never saw the first Paranormal Activity. Why would I want to watch the same image for 90 minutes, waiting for something to happen? Sitting down in the packed theatre, nerves got the better of me. It’s not as if I was anticipating a tense atmosphere, but I knew that the movie relied on what I hate most about horror movies, the jump scare. And then the film started to play.
It’s not a great film. In fact, it’s not even a film. The story was loose, it hung together just enough. I cared about the characters just enough to want them to survive, however that was all that was needed. But the sections recorded using the cameras installed by the characters were incredible. The length of time we have to analyse each frame for movement, to choose which object is going to move and scare us was perfectly judged. These scenes had more in common with Where’s Wally than anything else, just as it seems obvious that the door is going to slam shut, another one slams open, as soon as it becomes expected that a pan will fall of a rack, EVERY FUCKING THING IN THE KITCHEN FLIES ABOUT. Each scare is expertly timed to lend the film a feeling of menace and inescapable dread that is very effective.
It’s been a long time since ghost trains have seemed as scary as this one did. Not a film, but an experience, and a bloody good one at that.
For what it is, Harry Potter is brilliant. Beginning as a kids fantasy book and evolving with it’s audience to incorporate moments of genuine pathos, the series has been pitched so well, growing darker and darker as it’s fans grow more and more able to handle the tragic moments emotionally. From Edward Cullen’s death in part 4, it became clear that the series would go to some pretty sinister places before it’s conclusion.
And this one is no different, as the central trio find themselves all alone in the world as they travel across England trying to remain undetected and figure out just what to do, but mostly trying to remain undetected. And that synopsis is the biggest problem with The Deathly Hallows Part 1. Characters sitting around and bickering over what to do just isn’t good entertainment and here it doesn’t even feel too necessary, so when, between some fabulous sequences we are treated to the three arguing over what to do next it can’t help but make the characters seem incredibly annoying for not getting the hell on with it. Not having a genuine climax does a lot to make this all the more annoying, as just when it seems like the film is going to get going, it ends. As it stands now the latest installment of the Harry Potter series is nothing more than the central characters getting ready to kill V and then it ending with Voldemort becoming stronger than ever, making the entire exercise completely pointless.
The forest chase was incredible though, and, whilst the other action sequences were intense any feelings of tension were completely relieved when they used their new-found ability to teleport away to safety. Still though, you’d moan if they didn’t use it. It just makes things a bit shitter.
