Fob's Filmspot

[fobsfilmspot]

The Fault in Our Stars

To be honest, I'm not really sure about this one. I mean, fine, obviously it was never going to be as good as the book. But somehow they turned it into a sad cancer kids movie. And that was so not what the book felt like to me.

The performances were strong, Ansel Elgort was fairly perfect as Augustus, but Shailene Woodley didn't quite sell me the Hazel Grace I knew. I know that's unfair, because how could she ever, but I don't know... I felt like, in this movie, what Peter van Houten was saying to her was somewhat true. Cruel, certainly, but I didn't think he was wrong. I never thought that in the book.

Somehow Hazel and Augustus became two cancer kids in love. It didn't do the greatest job of telling their story outside of their cancer. Their relationship barely experienced anything beyond Hazel trying to be supportive while Augustus was *spoiler alert* dying. 

I dunno. I felt like the movie was a Jodi Piccoult story - deliberately dramatic and tear-jerky, whereas the book was perfectly John Green. I mean, sure, I cried in the movie and in the book, but I cried in the book because I loved the characters and I hated what they were going through. I cried in the movie because the way it was constructed made me cry.

It sounds like I didn't enjoy it at all. I did, I really did. If I hadn't read the book beforehand, I might have enjoyed it a lot more. I loved Gus, and I loved Hazel, I loved the way it dealt with what their parents were going through to. I thought Willem Dafoe's take on van Houten was quite inspired. But none of this had what I loved about the book. It wasn't my Fault in Our Stars. And so I was always doomed to not love it.

[fobsfilmspot]

About Time

The best movie I've seen in a good while. I said a few posts ago that sometimes it doesn't matter if you know exactly what's going to happen in a movie. Here is an example of when originality can working exceptionally well. I came into this movie thinking Richard Curtis had made another great rom com. I came out of it realising Curtis has instead made a wonderfully original, well-crafted film about life.

I waited a long time for the traditional plot points of a rom com to arrive, and they just never did. There was no real climax, no real resolution - About Time is just a story about a guy who can travel through time. There's no need for him to discover that he can't fix everything, or that he's ruining his relationship by living over important moments so he can say exactly the right thing. Tim's ability to travel in time is not that kind of narrative device. And that just makes the film feel so refreshing.

This movie is just beautiful. It's funny - both Rachel McAdams and Domnhall Gleeson are really natural and genuinely likeable. Bill Nighy steals the show, but then he always does. It's heartbreaking, heartwarming - all that Richard Curtis rom com stuff - but above all, it's a wonderful, refreshing piece of writing that treats its characters as they should be treated. I don't see how anyone could walk out of this movie disappointed. It's fantastic.

[fobsfilmspot]

Gravity

This was an incredible movie.

It's not one I'd usually like. But the intensity and the atmosphere of it completely drew me in - and it was never too much. Watching Sandra Bullock's journey never felt boring or long winded - quite a feat when you consider that she's the only person onscreen for most of the movie.  Cuaron has done an incredible job of putting you right there, in the moment. I didn't want to look away the entire time.

It is pretty intense, and though I thought that would get too much for me, the tension was instead really effective. Without it, the film would have become very tedious, very quickly. Cuaron has exceptional control of the tension in the film - he uses it just enough to keep you involved the majority of the movie, but at the same time is able to recognise when enough is enough, and he slows it right down again. The atmosphere is just incredible as well. It's one of the few movies I've seen that i've genuinely thought the 3D aspect added something to it. I flinched almost every time satellite debris came flying through the screen. The soundtrack is really impressive, too - I haven't heard much from Steven Price, but he did a great job here.

The performances are effective too. I found Sandra Bullock unbelievably irritating during the introductory sequences, but you can see this is a necessary trait for the audience to appreciate what she's going through, and to see just how much she has to change and develop over the course of the movie. I'm still disappointed Downey wasn't able to do this one - he would have been so suited to this role, but Clooney gives an impressive performance too, so I'm happy to move on.

Gravity is compelling, tense, incredibly realistic (at least comparatively, when you consider the genre), and i genuinely enjoyed every second of it. It's got a hell of an ending, and it's 100% worth seeing it in the cinema, and in 3D.

[fobsfilmspot]

City of Bones

I actually hate saying this, about any movie. But about this one, it's got to be said.  Total and utter drivel.  Nothing could save this movie. I was bored, and horrified, and confused for almost the entirety.

I don't LOVE the books, I'll admit - but I have read them all, and I certainly got into them enough to finish in five days flat. But everything that was good and interesting in the books has been completely removed in this film. They play all their cards immediately, ruining almost every twist in the entire series. Rather than watching/reading on to find out what happens, they've told you exactly what lies have been told to the characters. You're not even left wondering. It's certainly one of the worst script adaptations I've ever seen, and I'm pretty sure Cassandra Clare was supposed to be  'working closely' with production. So she was pretty useless.

The casting was mostly awful too. Magnus, who was hands down the most interesting character in the books, was well cast in terms of looks, but appallingly cast in terms of talent. A lot could have been done with Magnus if they'd got someone interesting. Instead they went for a guy who looked good, but clearly has never had to act in his life. Every line he said was totally unconvincing, his movements completely boring - he was just a waste of space. They might as well have cut Magnus out altogether. Jamie Campbell Bower wasn't bad as Jayce, certainly better than I expected him to be, and Robert Sheehan is perfect as Simon, but the rest of the young cast wasn't really up to scratch either. I found Lily Collins made Clary largely unsympathetic, and Isabelle and Alec had so much of their characters removed I couldn't even bother to care about them.

I know movies have to change things about books. I know it's necessary to make cuts and edits for the sake of a very different medium. But this was an atrocious attempt to cash in quickly on a popular set of books, and I'm glad the studio is paying for their stupidity - so far just $33 million worldwide, from a $60 million budget. 

[fobsfilmspot]

Now You See Me

I did enjoy this movie. It had an intriguing storyline, everyone performed well (with the possible exception of Isla Fisher, but I don't really like her generally, so i'm a tad biased), and I really didn't see the ending coming.

Michael Caine's rare performances as a retiree often motivate me anyway, but this movie is worth seeing for other reasons. Jesse Eisenberg, while still being wanky, seems to have adopted a bit of a 'cool' persona here, instead of the awkward geek, and it works just as well. Dave Franco is also impressive, and Woody Harrelson is also good fun, but the stand out performance belongs to Mark Ruffalo.

It's not any kind of award winning movie, and it does drag on a little bit, but the plot is well developed, and it actually manages to keep you guessing. My one complaint is that the ending is slightly 'magical' - and I feel it would have done better to stay grounded in reality, but it's a small complaint. Definitely worth a watch.

[fobsfilmspot]

The Way Way Back

Look. We all know this movie's been done before. We all know pretty much what's going to happen. And we all know at some point everything's going to work out for this kid. But you know what? Sometimes that doesn't matter. Sometimes a feel good movie is what you need, and even if you know all the stops it's going to pull into, that doesn't have to make it less entertaining.

For a coming of age movie, I think it was above the mark. It's funny, and 'heartwarming' (naturally), it makes you root for the kid and love his pseudo-father-type (Sam Rockwell as relatively ordinary guy. And he's AWESOME at it) and hate on Steve Carell and occasionally his Mum - it does all the things it's set out to do. And I say there's nothing wrong with that.

There are original movies elsewhere. If you want creative and boundary-pushing, go somewhere else. This movie has some great performances (the obvious exception being the snooty teenage daughter of Steve Carell), it's well written. It made me laugh, and it made me smile. And it had Jim Rash. I don't need much more to make an enjoyable film.

[fobsfilmspot]

Warm Bodies

I loved this movie. It feels fresh, it's funny and interesting, and doesn't just go where you expect it to. 

It's got a well crafted story - and a concept that makes you think, and look at the "zombie" genre in a different way. I've been losing hope with films lately - losing faith that anything with a bit originality would come back into the mix. Warm Bodies has totally reassured me.

The soundtrack is wonderful, it's well acted by everyone involved - especially Nicholas Hoult. I think it went on a little long - that's probably my only complaint, and it's a pretty small one - but it could have retained my interest a little more had it told it's story more succintly.

This is nonetheless a beautiful little movie, and it needs to be watched. Go and see it. You'll love it.

[fobsfilmspot]

A Place Beyond the Pines

Three hours of unending hell.

This is not an exaggeration. This movie was pointless. Meandering. Depressing. Poorly edited. Stupidly put together. And it wants you to think that it's amazing, with every slow shot and all the minimal dialogue, when all it's actually doing is taking one billion years to tell three stories nobody wants to hear about.

It wasn't poignant. It wasn't interesting. It wasn't compelling. It was awful, from start to finish. Don't watch this movie. 

No wonder Ryan Gosling wants a break from acting.

[fobsfilmspot]

The Impossible

A decent movie - hard to watch in some parts, and often fairly cliched, but decent nonetheless.

Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts both received Golden Globe nominations for this film, and Watts an Oscar nod as well. While their performances were very good, it's the editing, sound and direction in this film that are far more worthy of recognition. 

What I needed to do when news was first reported on the disaster in 2004, was see this film. The tsunami sequences are so terrifyingly well done, it feels like you're being tossed around by the wave right with them - and you can't breathe, and you're dodging trees and buildings and other bodies, and you can't breathe or find the top or breathe or move or stop. The sound and the editing are just incredible, they send you right there, right into the moment, and it's completely and utterly terrifying. 

The story is entertaining, if at times frustrating, and the children in particular are impressive, considering their cuteness was clearly considered a priority during the casting decisions, as opposed to their ability to perform. The older boy, Tom Holland, carries the story for much of the movie, and he handles the responsibility impressively.

The accuracy of the horror of this disaster absolutely makes this movie, though it does make it hard to watch. The injuries inflicted on Naomi Watts are nauseatingly realistic, as are some of the hospital scenes. Juan Antonia Bayona's determination for realism is often outweighed by his use of cliched sentiment, but the film is an impressive achievement, and a very good depiction of such a significant disaster in our history.

[fobsfilmspot]

Flight

Entertainment-wise, I hated this movie. It's uncomfortable and cringey, and goes on for too long and I just wanted to leap through screen and tell him to 'please just stop'. I didn't enjoy it, and wanted it to end 30 minutes in.

That said. It was a pretty good movie. Denzel's performance was great, particularly during the crash scene - perfectly embodying the pilot whose attention was focused one thousand places at once. He was a very believable drunk, and I really did hate him at certain parts of the movie - he was well deserving of his nomination. But Kelly Reilly was really impressive as well, and I've never really thought much of her. She was quiet and desperate, and managed to create quite an interesting character from what could have been a fairly diminished role.

Zemeckis was able to flourish his action skills during the crash sequence, which really was an amazing thing to watch - not just the effects, but the editing and timing of the whole scene was very well done. But overall it was a fairly different film for him, and he pulled it off well, despite the unnecessary length.

So, yes, I hated this movie, and I wouldn't want to watch it again. But it was well made, well performed film, and it's worth some recognition for the story it had to tell. Just because a story isn't entertaining or easy to watch, doesn't mean it isn't worth telling. I know that, it just doesn't make me any more willing to watch it.

[fobsfilmspot]

1001 Films to See

I've slowly been making my way through '1001 Movies to See Before You Die', and have been building up a list of its recommended. 

Broken Blossoms The Smiling Madame Beudet Nosferatu - A Symphony of Terror Haxan Our Hospitality Thief of Bagdad Battleship of Potemkin The Big Parade Sunrise The Crowd Frankenstein The Passion of Joan of Arc The Man with the Movie Camera All Quiet on the Western Front City Lights I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang Scarface: Shame of a Nation King Kong The Bitter Tea of General Yen The Fatal Glass of Beer A Night at the Opera Dodsworth

[fobsfilmspot]

Silver Linings Playbook

I really enjoyed it, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting. It seems to have been marketed as a quirky, eccentric rom-com - but it wasn't really any of those things. Those were elements of the movie, but it was generally a more realistic, driven narrative than I was expecting. It wasn't as funny as the rom com I was expecting, but nor was it narratively cliched, so you know. Swings and roundabouts.

Performances were amazing - Jennifer Lawrence absolutely was incredible. I'm not totally convinced it was Oscar worthy, but she was dam good. Bradley Cooper didn't annoy me at all, which is a fairly incredible feat, and Jacki Wilson and Robert de Niro were both fantastic, too.

It was just a really well structured film, I think that's mostly what I liked about it. It had funny moments, and complexly drawn characters, but mostly I enjoyed the simple structure of it. Just a guy with a few mental problems, who believes his recovery is all about getting the one girl back, only to meet a new girl. It's a romantic comedy plot, but it doesn't go where you expect, and I think that's important in these days of remakes and sequels and continuously recycled plot-lines. 

Well worth seeing, for the performances alone, if not for the simple and well designed story. Don't go in with expectations, and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[fobsfilmspot]

Oscars Recap (2013)

Overall, I'm not sure I particularly enjoyed this year's Oscars. And usually I do. But generally I don't think Seth was all that great. The opening with William Shatner was a cool gimmick, but it went on a little long, and I don't really think it suited the opening monologue? He did have some good stuff - the Von Trapp Children bit ("they're gone!!") was pretty inspired, and he did well at calling the audience on their bullshit (I mean really, too soon for the Lincoln joke? Really?). And I don't agree that it was "mean-spirited", like some have been saying. There's no way he was worse than Ricky Gervais - and I realise Ricky's only ever done the Globes, but still, Seth hardly insulted anybody badly.

But it was more the overall ceremony structure that was lacklustre, nothing to do with Seth. The set design was boring, and it didn't change, they weren't doing anything cool with the nominated examples - no script examples for the screenplay awards or anything. I loved it the year they started honouring each actor and actress for their nomination, but they've seemingly digressed to making it all about winning again. And no montages apart from the Bond one, which really makes me sad - I love the montages! A few less musical numbers and a few more montages would have upped the entertainment factor, for me anyway.

The musical numbers were far too jammed together and unexciting anyway, and they put all the boring categories into one big section - so there's a whole period of time when you basically want to sleep. So to VFX and editing people, but really. You know it's true. The memorium was good - Nora Ephron's image and quote totally made me cry, as I knew it would, but I think I'd have gathered Babs singing during, rather than post.

That said, there were some great things about this year's too. The Jaws music when speeches got too long was such an amazing idea, I loved. Slightly outrageous that they only did it when it was the boring people, and let Tarantino go on and on, but still, I thought it was pretty awesome. And it totally worked - it seemed to finish on time and everything. 

No surprise winner's this year, but at least there wasn't one film that took out everything, that gets irritating. There were some surprisingly good speeches, nobody really went on and on or burst into tears too irrecoverably. Daniel Day Lewis cracked a good joke about job swapping with Meryl Streep, which, admittedly, made me less angry that he's won. Adele was just amazing - she was all emotional but she's so awesome she totally saved it. 

Jennifer Lawrence handled falling down so well, I absolutely love her. Laughing at everyone giving her a standing ovation because they clearly felt bad for her. And major props to both Hugh Jackman and Bradley Cooper rushing to her aid. Christoph Waltz' speech was adorable, but only because he was smiling that adorable smile the whole time. And Tarantino really is a complete lunatic, but I'm so glad he won. You can see how passionate exciteable and passionate he is, despite the lunacy - that same passion makes him an incredible filmmaker, so you can't dislike him for it.

[fobsfilmspot]

The Illusionist

Fairly impressive, but it kind of ruins it when you know there's a twist. Because I was looking for it, it was fairly obvious, but I genuinely don't know if I'd have spotted it of I didn't know there was a twist. I say this, too, and I've just ruined it for anyone who didn't know there was a twist. I guess I'm hoping most people already knew. So it would have been a great ending if I hadn't known what it was, because I spent the whole movie looking forward to finding out HOW they did it, and then because they were more focusing on shocking people with the twist, they didn't sort of go into the 'how' very well. So then it was kind of a disappointment, cuz there were a few holes. But Ed Norton was pretty awesome, as was Jessica Biel, actually, who I've never really liked before. Ed Norton is actually pretty heartbreaking, really. And I was excited to see a pretty unsung Aaron Johnson - not his most awesome performance, maybe, but he was good. It was a really good story, really, well told, well performed, it was just that knowledge of the twist just ruins it. Try not to look for the twist if you haven't seen it yet,a nd just let the movie unfold. Because it really did ruin it for me.

[fobsfilmspot]

The Fighter

Fairly enjoyable, and not quite as hard to watch as I was expecting. I guess because it's based on a true story, so rather than what I was expecting (Christian Bale's character beating the drugs, then letting Mark Wahlberg down again, then triumphantly pulling through) it was a bit less predictable, a bit more true to life, maybe. It made you more sympathetic to Bale's character than you would have been had it been entirely fictional, I think. I have to say, I don't usually like Christian Bale - I think his Batman is too over the top, and I hardly ever feel sympathetic toward him - but he was genuinely impressive in this one. His total mania and over the top-ness - in the small scene in the end, where they showed the real guys, you could really see how good a job Bale was actually doing, he really nailed the mania. Mark Wahlberg was pretty good as well, but Amy Adams was awesome - brilliant work for her to fight the typecasting stigma, this was a really different role and she was damn good at it. And for a boxing movie I found it pretty interesting, really - mostly because the plot didn't follow the path I'm used to, so it was able to surprise me somewhat. I don't understand boxing at all, and The Fighter didn't help with that, but it did do a good job of skimming over the fighting details, and helping the audience understand the important points without going too far into the details of the game. I found it genuinely enjoyable, and I was kind of staying away because I thought it would be a lot more angsty. But it was quite uplifting, really, and not just at the end. You feel for the characters and for the real life guys, and that's really what you want in a movie like this, which could so easily have become just another boxing movie. Instead it says something about the way less privelaged people go through life, and the way problems like drugs and low educations don't necessarily have to become dramatic stories of over coming the odds - some people just manage to get by, and the problems just become ordinary parts of their lives. It's a different way to tell this story, and for that reason I found The Fighter refreshingly appealing. Worth a watch.

[fobsfilmspot]

Winnie the Pooh

The most beautifully crafted cartoon I've seen in a long time. Gorgeous illustrations, an adorable story, brilliantly acted - it was just totally amazing. And after that totally work of art trailer I'm totally relieved that the movie lived up to such high standards. But it was totally brilliant. I'm fairly sure I haven't read much Winnie the pooh, and if I have I can't really remember it. But they did a pretty incredible job of just recreating the story - involving the words, and using the same erratic storyline, and the interaction between pooh and the narrator. Just adorable, it really was. Funny, and interesting, and gorgeous to watch. And the acting was amazing, mostly the same voices from the cartoon, but also Craig Ferguson as the owl (totally unrecognisable) - and they were all really good, complimented brilliantly by John Cleese as the narrator. I'm so sad that this movie didn't do great at the box office, because it is genuinely such a well made movie, and it deserves much more recognition. Go go and see it, like immediately.

[fobsfilmspot]

Beginners

A sweet little movie, small, but packs a bit of an emotional punch. It's sad, but not in unexpected way, and so it's just a nice little movie. I've never been overly impressed with Ewan mcgregors American accent - I'm beginning to think Scottish accents are incredibly hard to make American, because David Tennant, Liam Neeson and Gerard butler, as much as I love them, also cannot pull off the accent. It's an interesting way of telling the same old story, really - Ewans narration is made interesting by statements like 'this is 1943. This is what it looked I've when people laughed. When they cried. What they did for fun. This is a car. This is a house.' etc - each back story then becomes its own little piece of history - it gives you a sense of a wider story than just those of the few characters the film is highlighting. From the ads, I got the impression the film was mostly about Ewan's character dealing with his dad coming out afte his mother died. But actually the film skims over that a little bit, and it just becomes part of the wider story about Ewan and his dad and the way different things affect your life and your own relationships. It's just a really interestingly made film, using all sorts of different storytelling techniques to really connect you to the characters and the story. Ewan and Christopher Plummer are both good, but not astounding, but the way Mike Mills has constructed the story means you're able to connect with them anyway. It might be a story we've seen several times over, but the way this story is told makes this film absolutely worth seeing. It's really able to pull something out of you by the end of the film.