True Grit

I think this is awesome, so many good movies are actually coming out new now, and I'm loving it...so I saw this one in theatres the other day. Unfortunately I had not read the book before I saw the movie, I have read it now, so I can compare them both.
It's basically about this young girl (12...i think?) who needs to hunt down a man Tom Chaney who murdered her father. She seeks the help of U.S. marshal Rooster Cogburn, played by Jeff Bridges and this Laboeuf guy who ...is also looking for Chaney.
So...this old man Cogburn and this young girl Mattie go on this hunt for this guy...accompanied by Laboeuf at times, because he leaves the group halfway through. That is one of the things that stuck out to me as a difference between the book and the movie. In the book, Laboeuf doesn't leave, and obviously, the events that occur when Laboeuf returns to the group doesn't occur in the novel either. Other than that, I didn't pick out much that was different between the two. A little bit more different in the ending, but nothing major...at least I didn't think so. I seem to have a really bad habit of not accurately comparing books and movies. I always seem to think they do a fairly good job until other people point out really obvious flaws lmao.
Anyway, the plot is simple...but simplicity can be a good thing, and it does work in this movie. The only complaint I have with the simplicity of the movie was the climax. No matter how simple and slow a plot may be, the climax needs to be big...and the climax kindaa flopped, I have to admit. It was still good though it was only a minor dissapointent.
I love Jeff Bridges! I think he is one cool dude...that guy is like, a 'man'. He is just...amazingly awesome, that is all I have to say.
Matt Damon, not a huge fan :/ I kinda can't stand him...he was okay in this movie. I don't think it helped that I didn't think his character was fantastic, and I do blame a bit on him, but, I think the character himself could have been better coming from the Coen brothers.
My biggest complaint, which really doesn't have to do with film quality, was how much of an ass Mattie turned out to be. I loved Cogburn and the way Mattie treats him in the end just pisses me off so much...she shoulda lost the other arm, she deserved em both gone!
Good movie, not for everyone, slow but definitely cool.

8.4/10

Black Swan

Well, I obviously had extremely high expectations for this film as Darren Aronofsky is one of my top absolute favourite directors! I love everything he does. I'll admit that I was the SLIGHTEST bit skeptical when I heard that he was doing a movie about a ballet dancer...cause, I just found it strange, I couldn't really picture it. But, I should have known better, because he puts an amazing spin on ballet, making it shocking for anyone expecting a typical 'ballet' movie (Heard a few stories from friends...was NOT what they were expecting :P )
The movie revolves around Nina, an extremely dedicated and quite good ballet dancer. She scores the role of swan queen in a ballet production put on by the studio she belongs to. The catch is...the role of the swan queen is a progressive one...in which the swan transforms from the elegant and confident white swan to a dark and depressed black swan...
She has trouble transforming into the black swan on the stage, as she is too uptight and controlled...until, slowly, she loses control and her mind as the transformation becomes very real.
Natalie Portman actually does a fantastic job...I'm not really a fan, as I don't fully agree with a lot of the acting roles she accepts...I don't really feel as though she has high standards...which makes me question if she really knew what a fantastic role she had from Aronofsky...BUT I'll leave it at that because I have no complaints about her performance in this particular film.
I read recently someone compared Darren Aronofsky to Nick Cave...and at first I was kinda like 'what the fuck' ...how....and then, the more I thought about it, the more it actually makes complete sense. They both produce work that is extremely raw, gritty, and real. It's the real shit! It's not going to come easy for the audience...it's gross, and disturbing, and ugly but SO intriguing...you cannot stop watching it no matter how uncomfortable it makes you (and it WILL make you uncomfortable).
This time, Aronofsky focused on the grit in the characters rather than the setting like with Requiem or Pi. So...I do see the resemblance between Cave's work and Aronofsky's and I am a HUGE fan of them both.
One last thing that I need to mention is the length of the film. It's an hour forty I believe, and within that hour forty there are very few 'slow' moments and even those are completely entertaining. I feel like so many movies now are like going for two and a half hours...and I don't know if they think that that somehow improves the quality of the movie, but it really doesn't. It's quality over quantity for sure. The length of the movie was ideal. It would have been so easy to drag it out and make it nice and long...but he didn't and I appreciate it. :P
Definitely a must see.

9.3/10

True Grit

I've been looking forward to seeing this movie for quite some time now. I really love the Coen brothers and Jeff Bridges and together is just golden. It's a fairly typical western story (...I would think. Although, I don't pretend to be an expert on westerns by any means). A young girl, Mattie, wants to have revenge and kill the man who killed her father. She hires the most fierce marshal, Cogburn, played by Jeff Bridges, who is known for having "true grit".
She is an amazingly intelligent and well spoken girl who fights for the right to ride with Cogburn, and occasionally some company, to catch and kill the man who killed her father.
In my opinion the film did well with how much action and guns etc they had. I would imagine it would be extremely easy to over do it with thr violence in a western like this...
The humour was always fantastic, the majority of it coming from Jeff Bridges.
Something that I'm noticing with many Coen films is the lack of music, and they continued the trend with this one. They really make it work...I'm not sure if many other filming styles could support a lack of music as well as theirs does.
One negative that I am just remembering now is probably the length of the film. It was an hour and fifty minutes long, which seems like a perfectly respectable length of time for a movie, but this one I felt required a minimum of fifteen minutes more...ideally, probably a good half hour. I felt like things were a bit rushed and a bit choppy, and I wish we could have also spent a bit more time getting to know the characters of the marshal and the girl. I wanted to feel for them more, and that would have made the film even more effective than it was.
Another negative for me was too much Matt Damon and not enough Josh Brolin. I really don't like Matt Damon and I thought his acting was below average and his character quite underdeveloped and lifeless. Brolin on the other hand, I quite like and wished to see more of...he wasn't given enough time...not enough time to be able to develop into anything more than a minor character. I wish he was given that chance.
One final note...regarding the final notes of the movie.
It didn't end fantastically. It was a respectable ending but nothing special.
And then the song playing for the credits just totally killed the mood.
Forgetting that, it was a great film, and I look forward to more from the Coen brothers, Jeff Bridges, and hopefully Josh Brolin in the future.

7.7/10

Dazed and Confused

Made in the 90s but based in the mid 70s...76 I think...it's basically about the last day of school, high school for some, grade 8 for others. I would expect I probably would have enjoyed it a bit more if I was around in the 70s...or graduating in the 70s...but I do appreciate it, and I've heard from talking to people who did graduate mid 70s that the movie is pretty spot on. Favourite character would have to be Slater...the pot head played by Rory Cochrane.
Fun fact of the day...in this movie the word 'man' was said just over 200 times (I would guess 80% of those were from Slater :P) and the word 'fuck' just over 60.
Matthew McConaughey makes a creepy appearance as an old graduate...I'm sorry, but I find him so disgusting...his little blonde mustache, ugh it's just so gross.
I kinda liked that his character was there though...him being the old graduate, hanging out with the new graduates, hanging out with the soon-to-be freshmen...it was kinda neat. And alotta fun. The movie was just fun...
With a kick ass classic rock (well, now classic rock) soundtrack consisting of Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Bob Dylan, Nazareth, Black Sabbath, The Runaways, Kiss, Foghat etc.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and it was funny without being overly cheesy which I can imagine would be very easy for that type of movie.

7/10

2001: A Space Odyssey

So, I had really really high hopes for this movie when I finally decided to sit down and watch it. I really enjoy Stanely Kubrick and I've heard that this is considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made...kinda a cult classic?
However, I have to say I didn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.
The movie is divided into fourish pieces.
The first one is these ape-like animals who I assume are supposed to represent humans pre-evolution kinda thing. This big black monolith appears and in touching it and being around whateve this may be emitting...they suddenly aquire the ability to use tools. They use a bone...as tools and eventually as a weapon.
The second part follows a scientist I believe who is about to travel to a base on the moon. A group of people confront this scientist about an epidemic that is rumoured to be going on on the moon. The scientist doesn't deny it...implying it's true. When he gets to the moon h meets with fellow scientists where they reveal that the epidemic was a cover up for a monolith discovered on the moon. They go out to see it where again, it emits a loud...radio signal?
Part three, two scientist/astronauts are on a spaceship on their way to Jupiter. They're accompanied by three...hibernating? Astronauts in these chamber kinda things along with HAL, a computer helping them with the mission. HAL is said to be totally and completely foolproof and never makes errors. Eventually HAL tells the guys that their is some issue with some machine that needs to be fixed, however the humans back home say that THEIR HAL computer is telling them that thiers is wrong. This gets the men questioning HAL and despite their caution when expressing their concerns, HAL realizes this and murders one of the men when he's fixing thr apparent problem by severing his oxygen. When the other man goes out to retrieve the body, HAL kills the three hibernating astronauts, and gives the man difficulty getting back into the spaceship. When he finally got in, he dissabled HAL as HAL was begging him robotically not to. Upon dissabling it, he gets a video message telling him the actual purpose for his trip to Jupiter...it was because the signal from the monolith on the moon was aimed there. He continues to Jupiter.
In the last part of the movie, the astronaut makes it to Jupiter to find another monolith. He suddenly is like...sucked into this...I dunno what, but I do know it's very colourful, noisy, and lasts like five minutes. He then sees himself in different stages in his life, in a room...middle aged, older, then elderly...When he's old and lying in bed, a monolith appears at the foot of his bed. As he reaches for it, he transforms into a fetus and hovers in space over Earth.
So, the movie is definately slow, but I appreciate that for sure...there's definately enough substance to keep me fairly interested. So, that's not what made me dislike it...well, I didn't even dislike it actually! I enjoyed it but it didn't wow me like I had expected. I felt like there was kinda a theme of the monoliths allowing for evolution or progress or enlightenment...but then it doesn't really seem to be all that it's cut out to be. For example, the use of bones as a tool...then turns into a weapon and spurs on violent actions etc.
My favourite scene was probably when HAL was begging the astronaut not to unplug him. He has this super monotonous voice, being a robot, but you could sense the attempt at emotion...as he was begging and telling him that he was hurting him. Eventually he is eliminated to everything but his core, which happened to be him singing a song..."Daisy, daisy...." as he slowly fades out completely. I really liked that scene, I thought it was really creepy.
I'm going to let this one marinate a bit...and what i would rate this one now is actually even higher than what I had in mind before I started writing.

7.2/10

Amelie

Jean-Pierre Jeunet continues to impress me. The first I saw of his was Micmacs…then City of Lost Children, and now Amelie.
I think Amelie is probably his most widely known film, and it’s fairly new…2001.
It’s about a girl named Amelie, surprise surprise, who had a very antisocial life growing up, lacking a lot of human contact.
Now, she’s older, single, a little lost, but thoroughly enjoying the small things in life.
She’s almost nauseatingly nice…like, really…I’m not sure it’s possible. Her first act of kindness, that we witness, is her tracking down and anonymously returning a childhood keepsake of a middle-aged man that used to live in her apartment. I think his overwhelming reaction kinda inspired her, and she continued to help people out and match people up anonymously.
One day she finds this scrapbook, full of different pictures of people from photo booths that had been torn up and reassembled. She sets out to find the person its belongs to, however, she plans on having a little bit of fun on the way…as she is now genuinely intrigued by this guy, due to the strange nature of the scrapbook she found. While browsing the scrapbook, she finds pictures of the same man repeated many times throughout the book, and the mystery man of the photos consumes her just as much as finding the scrapbooks owner does. Eventually, she uncovers the secret of both the man in the photos and the scrapbooks owner…and conjures up a plan to have them discover each other…well, the scrapbook man discover who the man in the photo’s is…the other half of this reunion is completely unaware that anything is happening.
As Amelie is concentrated on playing games with everyone else, she frequently visits her neighbor for talks that eventually help HER figure herself out. Her neighbor is working on a painting the entire time…one that he’s painted multiple times before, only…he can never get the face of the girl with the water right. He can never figure out her expression. As her visits increase, we assume that the girl with the water represents Amelie, and in Amelie trying to help him with her expression, she simultaneously discusses and discovers herself.
So far, every single movie of Jean-Pierre Jeunets that I have seen, has been beautifully shot, and this one is no exception! I always think it’s a pity that I have to concentrate on the subtitles as much as I do because it takes away from the visual. As with the City of Lost Children, I’ll probably end up watching it again, just to take in the visuals more…
The acting was good…nothing fantastic I didn’t think. Amelie as a character was very interesting, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt as uneasy and uncomfortable about a character that was essentially the poster child for a “good person”. It was kind of strange.
It was easy going, it was cute…I enjoyed it thoroughly (:

8.6/10

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

So...I heard so much about Buffy Buffy Buffy! Ash, you gotta watch it...I was so built up on this...and I think it may be my own fault...that upon hearing these recomendations I watched the film ( '96..'94ish?) instead of the tv show (1997 I believe) that everyone was raving about.
I thought that it would be smart to get a small taste for Buffy with the film instead of diving right into the ever famous show...
BUT I did...and I was not impressed lol.
Uhh...I'm not sure if it was supposed to be one of those movies so bad they're good??
I'm not sure...see, I'm quite a fan of movies that are so bad they're funny...even if they're not intended that way.
I get it. When it's done right, I get it.
The acting was terrible :P God, that chick pissed me off so much!!!
I dunno...I think all my Buffy loving friends are going to murder me...but I did promise I'd give the show a chance :P
anyway, I'm not going to spend a lot of my time thinking about this...I'll save it for when I get around to seeing the tv show.

4.0/10

Basquiat

I have no idea why I watched this film before I watched The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, because that was the movie that was recommended to me, by the same director. I think...that this was the first movie of this director, but I'm not positive.
It was about this black artist, Basquiat. He was homeless, living in a cardboard box, struggling to make it as an artist and to be rich and famous. Him and his friend (Benicio Del Toro) run into Andy Warhol (David Bowie) and his art dealer friend (Dennis Hopper) and Andy is actually quite a fan of his work. He buys a couple cheap pieces and they seperate. Then Basquiat is discovered by someone else, and over time ends up rising to fame in the world of painting. He reunites with Andy Warhol and they become good friends.
Unfortunately, he seems to be being used...used by people high in the business...but as much as I would like to feel sorry for him, I really don't. He kinda becomes an asshole to his old friend and the first person to recognize his art. He cheats on his girlfriend and then Warhol dies...and he discovers that that's really all he had left.
Andy was kinda the only one left in the art world that recognized him, and without him, he was nothing...with no friends or family left either.
Speaking of family...probably mt biggest complaint about this movie was the portrayal of Basquiat's relationship with his family. We learn that his family is actually middle class, so why does he live in a cardboard box. We are introduced to his father once but get no real insight to what their relationship might be (although I think we are meant ro assume that it's only after his rise ro fame that his father became re-interested in him). And we also learn that hismother is in a mental institution yet we have no idea why or how this affects him.
In that sense, the movie felt a little incomplete...and I also think that if I had previous knowledge of the artist or his work I may have appreciated it more.
On a positive note, the soundtrack and cast was AMAZING. For the cast we had David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, Benicio Del Toro, Gary Oldman, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Walken etc. It was really great...all these cameos left me and my friends going "woahh! That's _____" every other scene
With the soundtrack we had multiple songs by The Pogues, The Rolling Stones, Tom Waits, Public Image Ltd., a little Iggy Pop and David Bowie..it was great too (:

6.7/10

Barry Lyndon

A Stanley Kubrick film that hasn't really gotten recognized as widely as a lot of Kubricks other films.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the movie is over 3 hours long and doesn't exactly have an action packed plot.
The movie is divided into two halves. They're called (in MUCH fancier terms) How Redmond Barry aquired the name of Barry Lyndon and The Unfortunate Events that Barry Lyndon underwent as he fell from his high position....I just totally butchered that, but you get the idea.
The first half of the movie, we are introduced to the main character, Redmond Barry. He's an Irishman and, because of some love issues and a staged murder, he has to leave Ireland. From there he joins the British army...from THERE he ends up running away, getting caught up in a lie, and is forced to join the Prussian army. He works his way up there in the army and is assigned to spy on this...guy (yah, I totally forget his status).
When Barry discovers that the man he was sent to spy on is a fellow Irishman, they stick together and end up cheating rich men out of their money.
Eventually, they're found out and forced ro leave the country...where continuing to cheat men out of money with cards and Barry decided he needs to marry rich to continue the lifestyle he wants.
He finds a rich Lady (Lyndon)...and she falls in love and they're married.
The second part is after they're married. Barry kinda turns into an asshole at the point. He is extremely cruel to Lady Lyndons child with her previous husband, and totally favours his own child with her.
Long story short, (yah right...I suck at summarizing) he kinda abuses his stepson in front of people who he needs to impress in order to keep himself socially high...
Slowly he falls from the lifestyle that he was used to, without securing himself with any financial stability...the stepson comes back, challenges him to a dual, which Barry loses...and is sent out of the country to leave his mother alone...
I can see how people may consider this movie extremely slow and boring...it is really really long, and it didn't hold my attention as much as I would have liked, but I dis feel like every scene had a lot of work put into it.
I haven't read the novel it was based off of, but I get the feeling like what they kept from the book was done really well, true to the details of te book.
I have no idea why I feel like that...but, I dunno.
It was interesting...but I think someone interested in the 1700's time or in Kubricks film will really enjoy and appreciate it.

7.1/10

The Blair Witch Project

I’ve been wanting to see this movie for quite some time now. I’ve heard good things from people whose opinions I trust…but I’ve also heard people saying it’s one of the worst movies they’ve ever seen. Those two facts alone almost always make me want to see a movie.
Also, I’m a fan of the style that it was filmed in…similar to Cloverfield etc.
Basically, these three friends are making a documentary on the Blair Witch, who is said to haunt this local forest. After interviewing a few people around the town, they travel in to the forest, set up camp, and stay the night…filming almost everything as they go. Unfortunately, things start going south after the first night…when they cant find their way back to their car. They end up spending another night in the forest…hearing strange noises this time.
They pretty much conclude the next day that they are lost, and one of the guys even admits to kicking the map into the river, which enrages both the other people. They continue to hear strange things, mostly at night, and they stumble across strange things during the day. One of the guys, Josh I believe, ends up missing about ¾ of the way through. Dun dun dunnn.
I’ve talked to a few people about their “theories” as to what is exactly going on, and what happens at the end of the movie…and the majority of the people I talk to bombard me with questions as to why the witch does what she does to the characters at the end of the film…and why she lets some other unknown party come and collect the tapes that recorded what went down. People have themselves really worked up over what/why this witch is doing what she’s doing.
MY theory, if that’s what you want to call it, is that there really is no witch…
I mean, at no point throughout the entire movie do we ever get concrete proof that the witch exists…nothing.
My first thought is that it’s Josh setting his friends up…I mean, I obviously don’t think he’s sane…I feel like maybe he went kinda insane? Maybe being paranoid with the Blair Witch curse and being in the forest…it all just got to him?
HIS pack and clothes are the ones that got covered in slime…HE is the one that disappeared…they hear HIM screaming…but as much as they try and find him he seems to avoid it…
I don’t really know…
As for the ending…I’m not really sure what happened…MIKE…yesss I just remembered his name. Mike ends up staring at a wall…screaming? I’m not sure, I don’t remember…
The beginning of the movie states that they remain missing, that they, nor anything that belonged to them, aside from their tapes, was ever found.
On the whole, I really enjoyed the movie…I can see how its kinda a ‘love it or hate it’ kind of movie. As I said before, I’m a sucker for movies that feel like you’re watching a playback of something recorded on a video recorder. I think it gives it an eerie realistic feel that you lose when they put a lot of effort into the professional filming. And although it had the feel of just spontaneous filming, it was obvious when you paid more attention that many of the shots were thought out very thoroughly and some pretty neat shots were achieved.
I also liked the fact that there was a lot left to the imagination…never seeing the witch and the camera turning off and on, cutting out parts…you miss some stuff…for example, we don’t figure out until later that Heather actually took one of the little stick figures that were hanging in the tree.
ANYWAY. I liked it…it kept me entertained.

7.7/10