My Top 25 Favourite Films At The Moment

My mind changes all the time, but these are my top 25, in alphabetical order. Some of them are recent viewings and there for I might be biased towards how much I like them, here goes...

• 12 Angry Men (S. Lumet)
• Alien Trilogy (R. Scott, J. Cameron, D. Fincher)
• Apocalypse Now (F. F. Coppolla)
• Chungking Express (Wong Kar Wai)
• Code Unknown (M. Haneke)
• Delicatessen (Jeunet & Caro)
• The Devil's Backbone (G. Del Toro)
• Donnie Darko (R. Kelly)
• Fight Club (D. Fincher)
• Hana Bi (T. Kitano)
• Heat (M. Mann)
• High Fidelity (S. Frears)
• Leon (L. Besson)
• Magnolia (P. T. Anderson)
• No Country For Old Men (Coen Brothers)
• Oldboy (Park Chan Wook)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (M. Forman)
• Open Hearts (S. Bier)
• Pulp Fiction (Q. Tarantino)
• Serenity (J. Whedon)
• Shawshank Redemption (F. Darabont)
• Taxi Driver (M. Scorsese)
• Three Colours: Blue (K. Kiezlowski)
• Winter Light (I. Bergman)
• The Wrestler (D. Aronofsky)

Doubt - Mini Review

Set at a Catholic school in the Bronx, it centers on a nun who grows suspicious when a priest begins taking too much interest in the life of a young black student. Is she being overly protective or not protective enough? And can she work within the system to discover the truth? She thinks she's sure that he has molested the child, but is 'doubtful' of her actions.

Although the performances are brilliant, from Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and of course, Philip Seymour Hoffman, that's about the only good thing about the film, there is no plot development apart from the first and last 5 minutes of the film, meaning lots if arguments and no conclusions. If you are going to see it, the performances are great and it isn't boring because of the talent spilling over the sides, and nothing else. 4/10, purely for the performances.

Slumdog Millionaire - The Most Over Rated Film Ever? - Contains spoilers

If you’re reading this, you are either gonna spoil the film for yourself or you have seen it, so I’m not gonna do a summary of the plot, but rant about why it is a less than average film. Firstly, Slumdog Millionaire is favourite to win the best picture Oscar (although The Wrestler is far superior, and not even nominated!) which is really annoying and proves how ‘up themselves’ the Oscars actually are (but did we need proof?)

Need proof it’s not that good?

Somehow, as the questions go on, he gets older when he tells the story of how he knows the answer. (e.g. question 1, he's 5 years old, question 2, he's 10 years old, etc. etc.) which makes no sense. Also, on the show, he rings his brother’s phone, even though his brother has left him for money and power, why would he ring that number? And why is he even at the show in the first place? Him and Latika meet up in the train station in the end, why didn't he just go there every day (which he does) and not go through getting tortured for money he doesn’t want? The prolonged 'tense' moments aren't tense because the whole outcome is exactly what you expect, and you know what’s going to happen from five minutes in.

A real let down from Danny Boyle, down there with The Beach and A Life Less Ordinary (which I prefer to Slumdog Millionaire.)

3/10

Fight Club - Left Field Cinema Review

http://www.leftfieldcinema.com/fight-club-review

A Review of 2008

BEST FILM
There Will Be Blood
Wall E
Hunger

No Country For Old Men
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days

BEST DIRECTOR
Ben Affleck – Gone Baby Gone
Christopher Nolan – The Dark Knight
Steve McQueen - Hunger

BEST ACTOR
Daniel Day Louise – There Will Be Blood
Liam Cunningham – Hunger
Mathieu Amalric – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Heartbeat Detector

BEST ACTRESS
Anamaria Marinca - 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Belen Rueda – The Orphanage
Marcia Gay Harden – The Mist

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight

Gary Oldman – The Dark Knight

Paul Dano – There Will Be Blood

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Clémence Poésy – In Bruges

Gwyneth Paltrow – Iron Man

BEST NEWCOMER

Steve McQueen - Director of Hunger

Ben Affleck - Director of Gone Baby Gone

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Wall E

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
Hunger

BEST SCI-FI or FANTASY
Wall E
Cloverfield

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

BEST COMEDY
In Bruges
Step Brothers
Pineapple Express

Tropic Thunder

BEST HORROR
The Orphanage
[REC]
The Mist

BEST SCREENPLAY
There Will Be Blood
Gomorrah
Hunge

In Bruges

BEST SCORE
The Dark Knight
Wall E
There Will Be Blood

BEST LINE
“I...drink...your...MILKSHAKE!” There Will Be Blood
“Big Dave? All right, I’m medium Patrick, nice to meet you” Gone Baby Gone
“We cannot set Mick Jagger on fire” Shine a Light

BEST VILLAIN
The Joker – The Dark Knight
Mrs. Carmody – The Mist
Daniel Plainview – There Will Be Blood

BEST ON-SCREEN CHEMISTRY
Wall E and Eve – Wall E
Batman and the Joker – The Dark Knight
Ray and Chloe - In Bruges

WORST FILM
Son of Rambow
The Happening
Wanted

BIGGEST LET DOWN
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Quantum of Solace
Burn after Reading
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

Kes

What makes this a good film? Technological masterclass? Creative camerawork? Editing? Sound quality? No! none of these things, these are some, if not most of the downfalls of the film. With it having relativly normal camerawork and editing, bad picture quality and a poor qualitity dub, what makes this film a masterpiece is the performances and the characterisation.

To set the scene, a boy, picked on by his teachers and his classmates finds an interest in kestrels. One day, he sees a nest, so he reads up on them. He gets one of them and trains it. At last the boy has found happiness.

With one of the most heart-breaking endings I have seen in motion pictures, and fantastic performances all round, Kes is a quality British film. Wonderful film worth uying and rewatching.

9/10

P.S. I know it's a short review and I haven't done anything for a while but I am so busy at the moment. Got to go, bye!

Rank The... Films by/featuring Sean Penn

1. Into the Wild (Director, Screenwriter) - 10/10
2. The Thin Red Line (Actor) - 10/10
3. Mystic River (Actor) - 9/10
4. The Game (Actor) - 8/10
5. Carlito's Way (Actor) - 8/10
6. 21 Grams (Actor) - 8/10
7. Being John Malkovich (Thanks) - 7/10
8. Team America : World Police (Himself) - 6/10
9. Babel (Thanks) - 6/10
10. Dogtown and Z-Boys (Thanks) - 4/10
11. Death Proof (Thanks) - 3/10
12. Jackass Number 2 (Thanks) - 2/10

Horror Films For Halloween (although kinda late)

There are many types of horror films, but I think the best way to split them all up is into 4 types:

• Splatter horror-zombie movies, torture films, B-movies etc.


• Comedy-black comedy, homage, spoof, pastiche etc.


• Supernatural-ghost movies, sci-fi horrors, reigious horror, mystical horror, monster movies etc.


• Terror-terrorization, tense, claustrophobia films etc.

My favourite horror films are:

• The Thing - 10/10
• From Dusk Till Dawn - 8/10
• The Orphanage - 10/10
• Slither - 8/10
• Alien - 10/10
• Grindhouse - 10/10
• The Shining - 10/10
• Shaun of the Dead - 9/10
• Evil Dead II - 10/10
• The Fly - 8/10
• Halloween - 7/10
• The Descent - 7/10
• [REC] - 8/10
• Devil's Backbone - 10/10
• The Mist - 8/10

Although there are a lot of recent films up there, there are more and more bad and overly violent horror movies out at the moment.

The Boy in Striped Pyjamas

The story follows a boy named Bruno, who's father gets a promotion so they have to move. It is set in Nazin Germany and his father is the head of a death camp. The boy innocently thinks the camp is a farm and goes to the fence and befriends a Jewish boy. Not knowing who or what the boy is to Nazi's, they become best friends and meet up everyday on either side of the fence.

The book is geniuesly written n the childs perspective, meaning that you only know what you know and what the boy knows, so it's not until about half way through that you realise that it's the Holocaust. Although I thought the film was a great spin of the film, I didn't like the fact the advertising told you it was about the holocaust straight away. The magic of the book was that I didn't know it was during the holocaust until half way through it because it is written from a childs perspective, so it never mentions that they're wearing Nazi uniforms or anything, but the film opens with a shot of the Nazi flag.

The performances aren't outstanding but do the job and the subject is tackled in a way that is suitable for children but will make them think and ask questions which will increase their knowledge of the incident. I think the film is well done but is let dow by the advertising and the in your face-ness about the Nazi's. I think the book is supierior to the film, but it is because there are certain things you can't do in filmsthat you can in writing.

Book:9/10

Film:8/10

Rank The... Films of Scorsese

1) Taxi Driver - 10/10

2) The Departed - 10/10

3) Goodfellas - 10/10

4) King of Comedy - 7/10

5) Casino - 7/10

6) Mean Streets - 7/10

7) The Aviator - 7/10

8) Raging Bull - 6/10

9) Gangs of New York - 3/10

Rank The... Coen Brothers Films

1) No Country For Old Men 10/10
2) Miller's Crossing 9/10
3) Fargo 9/10
4) The Big Lebowski 8/10
5) Raising Arizona 8/10
6) O Brother, Where Art Thou? 8/10

7) The Hudsucker Proxy 8/10
8) The Man Who Wasn't There 7/10
9) Blood Simple 7/10

10) Burn After Reading 4/10
11) Barton Fink 3/10
12) Intolerable Cruelty 2/10
13) The Ladykillers 2/10

Burn After Reading

Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is a CIA analyst who quits his job at the agency after being demoted because of his drinking problem. He writes a memoir about his life in the CIA, but his wife, Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton), wants to divorce Osbourne and, at the counsel of her divorce lawyer, she copies his memoir, which obviously contains sensative material. Katie's lover is Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney).

The disc eventually finds its way to Hardbodies, a workout gym. An employee of the gym, Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) finds the disc in the changing rooms. Along with Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), he intends to use the disk to blackmail Malkovich. Linda wants the money to pay for cosmetic surgery.

They call up Cox in the middle of the night,but blackmailing him fails. They take the information to the Russian embassy. At the embassy, she promises that she will give more information afterwards.

Because Linda and Chad don't have any more information, they decide to break into Cox's house.

Although I liked it, it was rather a let down. It has some hilarious moments and some shockingly violent moments too, but it isn't as amazing as their other films and also following No Country for Old Men.

I'm going to 'Rank The...' Coen Brothers films as my next post and I'm afraid it will be rather low on the list.

Overall, I think it's an alright film, but the fact that it's a Coen Brothers film sort of, lets it down. One of their weakest films.

4/10

Rank the...

I'm going to do a little series of blog posts where I rank and comment on someones work, whether it be films, albums, series' or songs on one album.

First post, tonight!

Six Feet Under

I'll start off by saying that I'm pretty sure this is my favourite TV show ever, the characters are amazing and the plot, although slowly delivered in some points, is fantastic.

Each episode starts off with a different death, from some of the most grim things I've seen on TV to some of the funniest. The comedy is hilarious but very dark at some points, ad with lines like:

Man: You've done a nice job. She looks peaceful.
David: Well, she is at peace now.
Man: If there's any justice in the universe, she's shoveling shit in Hell.

[Brenda browses through clothes in a department store when a saleswoman approaches her]
Saleswoman: Anything I can help you with?
Brenda: Yes, I'm looking for clothes so expensive only an idiot would buy them. [walks over to a skirt] Oh, there they are!
[The saleswoman walks away angrily]

Series 1 isn't that great for catching the attention of the majority of people from what I've heard, but I thought it was okay.

Series 2 is better, but still drags and the plot doesn't really develop

Series 3 starts of with an amazing difference, different people married different people and you have to watch a few episodes to get your head around it

Series 4 is the darkest and one of the best, with David getting kidnapped and with a massive twist at the end

Series 5, my personal favourite, is fantastic, but rather depressing by the end

The ending is fantastic and perfect for the show, with so many things to take in it took me three times to watch it before I could think about it and take it in.

Each episode, bar one, started with a death, some depressing, some hilarious, my personal favourites are:

A woman see floating sex dolls and mistakes them for angels, and gets hit by a car

A man gets cut in half by an elevator when trying to help out a pregnant woman

and

A man drives himself over, literally

The show is all about the characters, who develop amazingly throughout the 5 series'

I feel like I'm rambling but I'll just sa, it's perfect in every way

11/10

The Others

In 2001, we were graced with a stunning group of young and upcoming Spanish filmmakers and their early masterpieces. From Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s ‘Amores Perros’ (Love’s A Bitch), who went on to make ‘21 Grams’ and ‘Babel’, to ‘El Espinazo del Diablo’ (The Devil’s Backbone)by Guillermo Del Toro, who went on to make ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and ‘Hellboy’. But above all these fantastic filmmakers, the Spanish filmmaker that got the most praise that year was Alenjandro Amenabar, with his film, ‘The Others’.

Although’ The Other’s’ isn’t bad, it certainly isn’t a good film, there is nothing special about it, the twist has been done and served better, in 1999, in M. Night Shyamalan’s film, ‘The Sixth Sense’.

The storyline has no real direction; it goes from being a mystery what happened to being a ghost movie to a depressing realisation and no real reason for it, everything just happened rather than any plausible reasons. The characters aren’t explored in any detail and the majority of them aren’t even likable.

Although the best performance comes out of Christopher Eccleston, (but could we expect less) out of the 13 speaking parts in the film, the most notable performances came from the children, both of whom outshone Kidman’s performance, which is surprising after her stunning performance in ‘Moulin Rouge’ earlier that year.

Director/composer Alejandro Amenabar’s minimalist score plays a key part in making The Others the film it is. Aiming to establish atmosphere, the score serves its purpose but doesn’t stand out or annoy.

The twist has happened before in better films and the suspense never ends with any real scares, a few old school jumps but nothing to really be afraid of, the only real fear within the film is the unknown, which turns out to be nothing in the end, which is a real let down.

Compared to ‘The Devil’s Backbone’, which is another Spanish ghost story, The Others is an abominable film, with no likable characters and no real villains.’ The Devil’s Backbone’ on the other hand is an amazing work of art, with a great script, amazing performances, all from unknowns and some of the best boo moments of the decade.

Is The Others the best Spanish film of the year, not even close. With foreign cinema at its best in 2001, with ‘Amelie’, ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’, ‘Amores Perros’ and ‘The Devils Backbone’, ‘The Others’ was one of the biggest letdowns of the year.

Verdict: Poor ghost movie that doesn’t live up to the rest of the other Spanish films of the year, yet it got all the glory.

3/10