*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Based purely on the subject matter, being an avid Formula One fan, especially with regards to Senna, I guess I know too much about the subject matter to not overlook the flaws, omissions, and half truths.
So I started to judge it as a pure documentary film, and I was not sure what the aim and purpose of the film actually was. It wasn't to tell of the life story of Ayrton Senna, as the narrative rarely ventured outside the world of Formula One. Despite the marketing media, it wasn't about why Ayrton Senna is regarded by many as the greatest driver that ever lived, as there was not discussion about his relative merits compared against other greats. It certainly wasn't an impartial account of Ayrton's time in F1, as there were only one moment of criticism (other than those from the villains of the piece, Prost (unfairly portrayed here) and Balestre) which came from Sir Jackie Stewart, which was never explored once Ayrton's gave his rebuttal. Furthermore, I felt the film lost its way after the rivalry with Alain Prost lost its intensity and it couldn't get to the end fast enough, missing out key events such as Barcelona 1991, and Donnington 1993.
A good evening's entertainment, but one that I don't think would have been diminished had I seen it on TV as an hour special on the 3 year rivalry between Senna and Prost, which is when the film was at it's strongest, in my opinion.
Good but not great
If you haven't heard of friends then well you don't deserve to be alive. By far the most influential, existential and incomparable television programme for the teenage generation and in my opinion, the only programme where any age group would enjoy it.
The ten season spectacular follows the exciting New York lives of six friends, Monica (Courtney Cox), Ross (David Schwimmer), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Chandler (Matthew Perry), Joey (Matt Le Blanc) and Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) through their relationships with external characters and with one another. From Chandler's relationship with Janice (Maggie Wheeler) going on to rather surprisingly marry Monica to Phoebe's recurring relationship with David 'the scientist guy' (Hank Azaria).
The series begins with Rachel running into the rest of the gang after just leaving her fiancée at the altar. Nearly the first shot of the whole series is of Rachel entering Central Perk (the gang's rest stop coffee shop) in her wedding dress soaking wet from the rain. the minute the laughs come from the live audience you know this is going to be a special show.
This first episode paved the way to some of the most exciting storylines ever shown on television. Of course the most famous of which is the 'will they, won't they' relationship between Ross and Rachel which first came together in series 3 which also created one of the most famous quotes in television history - 'we were on a break' and thankfully for the millions of viewers they finally get together in the last episode.
The incredible storylines and anticipated Thursday nights over its ten years unsurprisingly waded in other celebrities who rather cleverly noticed that the best way to advertise themselves would be to appear as a cameo as the most popular television series. From Fergie to Brad Pitt, anyone in the celeb world was willing to appear on the show.
Unlike some other programmes, Friends was never afraid to leave its usual environment of the apartment block and coffee shop. Most famously, the gang's trip to London and Las Vegas where the viewers were able to see them create more laughs and shocks in a different setting.
Over its ten years on our television screens it had an infectious ability to surprise us every week and with the final episode being one of the most viewed of any television series of all time clearly showed how popular it was.
An excellent adaptation of H.G. Wells' short story about an evolution obsessed, mad scientist who creates a race of human-animal hybrids on a remote island. Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) is the hapless protagonist marooned at sea, rescued by a passing trawler, thrown off and into a fateful journey that leads him to the sinister enclave of Dr. Moreau (played with menacing glee by Charles Laughton). Director Erle C. Kenton ('The House of Frankenstein') successfully creates an atmosphere of unease; with strange goings on behind closed doors and oddball characters roaming around the isle.
Essentially a satire on Darwinism, 'The Island of Lost Souls' is an engrossing trek through bizarre and dangerous terrain: where primitive creatures cower under the whip-hand of Dr. Moreau and a traumatized girl known as The Panther Woman (Kathleen Burke) comes to terms with the horror behind her creation. Look out for a cameo by monster movie legend Bella Lugosi as The Sayer of the Law, uttering his now classic line: "Are we not men?" and an early nod to chaos theory (i.e. if M'ling hadn't accidently spilt that bucket of water, Parker and Moreau would never have crossed paths).
In a curious parallel to the storyline, a lot of the film stock for this movie was either damaged or lost, and thanks to the cinematic Dr. Moreau's at 'Criterion', was re-assembled reel-by-reel, re-mastered and released on Region 1. The European release comes courtesy of 'Eureka!', who are on a par with 'Criterion' for a lot of titles and produced a brilliant 'Nosferatu' DVD set in 2010. 'The Island of Lost Souls' is a fascinating movie from a bygone era, definitely worth seeing for fans and newcomers alike.
One of, if not the best film to come out of the short lived period of artistic freedom that accompanied the Prague Spring is Juraj Herz's The Cremator. Unfairly sidelined when discussing the work of the Czechoslovak New Wave, Herz's dizzying film is a truly impressive work that combines the black comedy and psychological horror genres to dazzling effect. The film follows the titular cremator, Karl Kopfrkingl (Rudolf Hrusínský) who is fanatical with regards to his work and descends into madness as he is courted by the invading Nazi party. The allegorical nature of the film's totalitarian force was not lost to the Soviet authorities who banned it shortly after its release.
The film's memorable visuals succeed in disorientating the viewer into an almost hypnotised state. The amount of varying styles that Herz and cinematographer Stanislav Milota manage to blend together into a single package without the style becoming distracting is a feat unto itself. The Cremator features surrealistic elements that likely originate from Herz's puppetry background and that of his friend Jan Svankmajer (Alice); expressionistic mise-en-scène that harks back to another film that features a madman - Robert Wiene's silent masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari; extreme close-ups in the vein of Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc; deep focus shots that resemble Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and even some Hitchcockian scene transitions. However, perhaps most frighteningly of all, is the film's terrifying use of the first-person perspective to not just disorientate you by putting you in close proximity with a deranged madman but implanting you into his mind itself.
The film's horrifying nature is further amplified by the haunting, chilling soundtrack that accompanies it, courtesy of composer Zdenek Liska but even more important is the man who plays the madman - Rudolf Hrusínský who plays Karl in the manner of a creepier, slimier and all together scarier Peter Lorre (M). Quoting from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, he is obsessed by his duties to the point where he believes he is liberating souls by setting them free to pursue reincarnation. With Karl, Herz perhaps goes deeper than anyone else in cinema in exploring the human origins of the Holocaust, the necessary living mechanisms that would assist the Final Solution in being realised - the atrocities that Herz, himself a Holocaust survivor, experienced first hand.
The parallels with reality - historical or present - that The Cremator features make it one of the most terrifying in the entire horror genre. The plot its a journey that travels from dark humour characteristic of Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb to surrealistic psychological horror that featured a few years earlier in Roman Polanski's Repulsion and could later be found in the work of David Lynch. Ultimately, Herz's masterpiece is an altogether more frightening document on the loss of humanity that accompanies times of war and tumult.
For all that has been shown, W/T/Dead is top of my 'Worth another look' list. Stories are great and the acting from boss to trainer is wonderful. Trevor Eve plays a brilliant gaffa and deserves a 'WELL ACTED' certificate. Sad that the series has been shelved because it is one of the very best I have taken on board and recommend that viewers buy and repeatedly view....Fingers well crossed they will bring it back once again
In a world of extremes, prolific playwright David Mamet subtly depicts the alienating nature of normality; as NYPD detective Bobby Gold (an excellent Joe Mantegna) struggles with his heritage whilst working on a big murder case to catch an elusive cop killer. A non-practising Jew and amiable everyman, Gold is too Jewish for Gentiles and not Jewish enough for the Jews; taken off the cop killer case and ordered to investigate the murder of an elderly Jewish shopkeeper with a murky past. Gold finds the victim's "relatives" arrogant and overbearing, wandering reminders of why he became disillusioned with Judaism to begin with. Gold also resents the fact that he's been re-assigned at the behest of his co-religionists: "I'm not his people", exclaims Gold. Eventually intrigued by the case, he delves deeper into a sinister underworld populated by untrustworthy stooges and violent fanatics: Gold tracks down a bunch of Israelis who're up to no good, they aggressively question his loyalty to the tribe and he's soon embroiled in a conspiracy that could cost him his job and even his life.
William H. Macy co-stars as officer Tim Sullivan, Gold's partner and a pragmatic cop who has to contend with his colleague's increasingly irrational outlook on the idea of anti-Semitic persecution. Only actors of Mantegna and Macy's calibre could have accurately portrayed the finer points of how ideology and groupthink can potentially sabotage long standing friendships. For such is the nature of the movie that we're never quite sure who is playing whom and to what extent: are Bobby Gold's newfound sympathies a ruse to ensnare the Israeli criminals, are the Israelis perpetrating an elaborate hoax to escape justice?
David Mamet addresses some of these issues but leaves other questions unanswered; his writing is excellent and he isn't a bad director either, though I could've done without so many of those 'cop-opens-door-and-points-gun-around-room' scenes. 'Homicide' tackles a lot of controversial issues with searing honesty; a brass tacks approach which takes us through the police procedural in a straightforward manner with naturalistic dialogue, a poignant denouement between cop and cop killer and an excellent little twist at the end.
'Homicide', 'House of Games' and 'Glengarry Glenross' were high points in Mamet's career before he began churning out middling fare like 'The Unit' and 'Spartan' and long before the acclaimed dramatist lost his mind.
'Homicide' is a provocative and engaging police procedural that doesn't get the credit it deserves, an undiscovered gem worth looking out for.
The movie is fantastically adapted from the classic play
A very Australian outback (remote country area) culture, where the males are still males. Very realistic with the sounds and smells and dirt coming onto your face, and yet has a feeling of compassion. The Blue Heeler -red dog, covered with the red dust of the mining area draws the whole roughly tender story together.
Australian outback Blue Heeler dog and his love for his master.
The Hangover Part 1 was always supposed to be a niche, culty film, a kind of Withnail and I-type celebration of male excess, only set in Las Vegas. However, it succeeded beyond all expectations, reaching a far wider audience than intended and catapulting Bradley Cooper to A-list (or should I say A-Team?) stardom.
Part 2 is largely a re-enactment set in Thailand, with the same actors and the same basic premise of 'outrageous stag night-wake up with memory loss-fix the mess from last night-get to the wedding on time'. You get the idea. Thailand is shown in all its glory and squalor, from the beauty of the area around 'James Bond island' to the squalor of Bangkok with its colourful nightlife and ability to meet even the most colourful sexual tastes. I'm not sure the Tourist board would approve.
Beyond the distraction of the location itself, where The Hangover Part 2 falls a little flat is in its increased focus on the 'fix the mess from last night' element rather than what actually happened last night. A chase around town involving Paul Giamatti as a gangland boss the morning after fails to excite and the flashbacks seem less frequent than in the first instalment, leading to a frustrating sense that the true story is somehow being kept back from the viewer. Likewise there is a thread of predictability running through the film which even the actors seem to be conscious of. At one point Bradley Cooper's character Phil addresses the thorny issue of the self-styled Wolfpack's amnesia by demanding that everyone empty their pockets for clues as to what may have happened the night before: "You know the drill" he sighs. Yes, Phil, we do.
However, what just about saves this film from the dustbin of sequeldom is the occasional scene which manages to push the boundaries of acceptability and script-writer imagination. Without going into details, let's just say one of Bangkok's infamous ladyboys and a monkey drug-pusher are involved. As for the actors, the standout moments come from unlikely places, such as Ken Jeong's Chow character who nearly steals the show with his ultrasharp camp humour. Likewise, Nirut Sirijanya delivers a cracker of a father in law speech which could not be more insulting or humorous in its use of soggy rice as a metaphor. However, straight-laced Ed Helms is better served in The Office USA while Bradley Cooper is crying out for bigger projects to get his teeth into. At least Mike Tyson delivered his lines a little less flatly this time around, though he does need to work on that singing.
Increasingly outrageous humour keeps this stag party franchise alive...just
As dramatic as it sounds, i was genuinely DISTRAUGHT when the last episode of 'Waking the Dead' was aired !! And so, of course, I was first in line to buy the it on DVD ! I have been totally obsessed with the series since it began in 2000 and am not ashamed to say i shed a fair few tears when the end credits started to roll at the end of the last episode ( Of course, by 'shed a fair few tears' i mean 'sobbed uncontrollably for hours'). The way it was written was superb, the way it was filmed was outstanding, but above all else, the acting was perfection ! Sue Johnston and Trevor Eve have always been my favourites and personally was a little saddened that the last episode didn't end with their characters getting married !!! Boyd + Grace forever <3 The rest of the cast just fall into place around the pair beautifully and i will never ever grow tired of any of the episodes from this series or any of the other 8 series!!! Long live Waking the Dead :D
this film is absoutly amazing i would give it 5 stars. Me and my friend watched it at the cinema and we wouldn't move it was too good. Pre-order this DVD now. absolute classic film about a girl how gets a life changing trip.
Gideon Koppel's documentary of a year in the life of Trefeurig, the rural Welsh community where his parents, refugees from Nazi Germany, settled down, and where he grew up, begins so quietly, to the point of being poetic, that it might accurately have been called Ode to Trefeurig. Instead it takes its title from Noam Chomsky's example of a sentence - 'colourless green ideas sleep furiously' - which, although grammatically correct, offers no understandable meaning. It is a title which, in the beginning at least, might well be considered no less apt, for only gradually does the meaning of this understated documentary become apparent.
Trefeurig is the most picturesque of places, where time is marked only by the seasonal changes of weather and the monthly return of the mobile library, an archetypal idea of the golden past made real; and the way in which Koppel films this picturesque beauty and accompanies it with a rather subdued, thoughtful soundtrack gives this film a somewhat meditative feel. But what is not immediately apparent, and only becomes apparent through the fragmentary portraits of its residents, is that Trefeurig, and all that once made it a thriving community, is slowly dying.
The local school is to shut permanently, a decision taken by those outside the community who, like a vision of Kafkaesque bureaucracy, remain nameless and faceless to the people most affected by the decision, and it is this alone which seems to rouse the community from their placidity; they fear for the future of their way of life, and there is a sense of regret, loss and foreboding which quietly permeates throughout this documentary and juxtaposes the scenes of picturesque beauty and the moments of quite surprise and humour often found in the mundane nature of everyday rural life.
One such scene has a resident recite a poem to camera, a poem we can presume he himself has written, about how the local council changed a road sign directing visitors into the village from an old wooden one to a modern steel one; it is a moment at once mundane yet full of humour and still fully suggestive of this mistrust of modernity and longing for a simpler past which is shared by the whole community.
For Trefeurig seems to have become something of a refuge for many of its residents who, for whatever reason, have sought an escape from the modern way of life, and there is a sadness attached to the knowledge that places like this cannot escape unscathed by the march of progress.
I knew little about Sleep Furiously before watching it and was pleasantly surprised to have found a highly distinctive and unique documentary; for those willing to accept the film on its own terms, without expecting it to fit the pre-determined narrative structures of more traditional documentaries, I highly recommended it.
Not quite as bad as it sounds sci-fi western, that just about manages to survive its ridiculous premise with star power and good special effects. A pointless storyline sees cowboy Daniel Craig wake up with amnesia and a strange, futuristic bracelet on his arm, turns out he's a wanted outlaw, and dictatorial sheriff Harrison Ford plans on bringing him in...and then some aliens show up. Yes, director John Favereau ('Ironman') seems to believe that the mere concept of aliens in the old West is such an outrageously brilliant idea that it warrants an entire movie. It doesn't. That said, the on-screen duo of a droll Daniel Craig and no-nonsense curmudgeon Ford make for an engaging double act, Olivia Wilde provides the eye candy as a mysterious woman and the aliens themselves are quite well designed. In what appears to be his only inspired directorial decision; Favereau makes good use of CG and animatronics; so what we get are creatures who are a cross between Sammael from 'Hellboy' meets the bugs from 'Starship Troopers' with the head of a mutated piranha and the unique digestive capabilities of the Reaper vampires in 'Blade II'.
Harrison Ford is always a cool actor to watch and he makes the best of a duff role here, shooting and scowling his way through a pedestrian, cliché ridden script. Managing to traverse the limitations of both director and material, Ford draws out some laconic wit and utters the rare, smirk inducing one-liner. The Native Americans are largely depicted as a bunch of hollering, whooping savages who get to double team the Space aliens with the European aliens who stole their land. Ford's adopted Native son / butler was some kind of an attempt at redressing the racial balance but Adam Beach's character ultimately comes across as an Uncle Tom rather than a multicultural hero.
'Cowboys & Aliens' could've been a total disaster, what it is however, is a run-of-the-mill, well-produced, instantly forgettable film that adds nothing new to either genre. I wasn't bored but nor was I particularly interested. In fact, it almost makes you want to give 'Wild Wild West' another chance...almost.
Miley is all grown up now and keeping Hannah Montana a secret is causing problems for her and her friends. She decides to let the world know who she is and her life changes forever. There are a few twists and unexpected parts in the episodes, with an emotional ending.
The perfect film for christmas eve when you are snuggled up with the family! From start to finish, polar express is full of magic and wonder and will put you in the christmas film immediately. Highly recommendable
Rise of the Planet of the Apes serves as both a perfect prequel to the events of the long-running franchise as we know it, and a great "reboot" of its ideas and aesthetics for a 21st century audience. Where Tim Burton's updating of the franchise with his ill-received Planet of the Apes fumbled just about every aspect a whole decade ago, Rupert Wyatt's film does everything that it should do and more.
The film focuses on the origins of the eponymous apes rising up and taking over the earth. We follow scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) who is experimenting on primates to try and find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. By accident one genetically-enhanced ape, named Caesar, becomes far more intelligent than is normal and eventually end up the figurehead for the titular Rise.
While the film can comfortably boast of having all the huge action sequences (one in particular near the end) and jaw-dropping special effects that you could want from a summer blockbuster, it also has a lot of heart, soul and genuine drama to back it up and provide weight to it all. Whether it be Will trying desperately to help his suffering father, played brilliantly by John Lithgow, or his growing relationship with Caesar, this is as much a drama as it is an action spectacle.
What makes the film so special, however, is Andy Serkis' astonishing performance as Caesar the ape. He has already shown with his performances as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and as the mighty King Kong in Peter Jackson's identically titled 2005 epic, but he takes "human like" to a whole new level. In fact, his performance is so emotive and believable that he ends up being a lot more human than the actual humans in the film! It might not be the norm but it will be a travesty if Serkis doesn't get nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for his performance.
What's also amazing about the film is just how much it takes its time before it finally delivers the massive spectacle you might expect. That's exactly one of the reasons it works as well as it does, and one of the key reasons the fairly lengthy set-piece at the end is so effective; it doesn't rush things and gives us a lot of reasons to care for these characters, human or otherwise.
Exciting, emotional, genuinely heartfelt and with as much brain as it has brawn, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the prequel you always wanted for a franchise that maybe have, in some eyes, grown tired. Injecting a fresh 21st century feel while still very much respecting the source material, it's a triumph on pretty much all fronts.
The Triple-play Blu-ray of the film is well worth spending the extra few pounds on. Aside from the superior picture and sound quality it also features a plethora of excellent extra featurettes including "The Genius of Andy Serkis," which looks at what makes him so good at performing via motion-capture; "Composing the Score with Patrick Doyle," a fascinating look at the Scottish composer's often unique methods of making film music; and "Breaking Motion Capture Boundaries," which is a must-see for those particularly interested in the technicalities of how the special effects were achieved. Overall a fantastic Blu-ray release for a fantastic film.
The Children's Hour is a film I would class as perfection. The simplicity of being in black and white, it's wonderful directing and the acting of 2 sensational actors make the film. You can feel the emotion right away when the film starts - from the plight of setting up their own school for Martha and Karen - to the deep love that may or may not be quite platonic.
The film lovingly takes you through a series of events that one solitary child sets in motion and what happens to these two wonderful women will seriously get to you. It is amazing - simply put. And despite that you see the events for what they truly are there is still wide room for interpretation on everything that happens and particularly the relationship and the feelings that Martha and Karen have for one another.
It doesn't matter what your viewpoint is, you don't have to be any gender or orientation or race to love this classic and phenomenal film. It's outstanding.
Watch it.
Phenomenal
The human race is capable of an immeasurable number of emotions and actions. We can work together to explore the furthest reaches of the universe but we are just as adept at designing weapons to destroy each other. We feel immense love for those close to us - mothers, fathers, sons, daughters and surprisingly even animals can be the object of our affections but what about objects?
A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a film that examines our ability to love a robot programmed to love us. Haley Joel Osment stars as David, a "mecha" child that is 'adopted' by a human couple who's real son is in a state of suspended animation until a cure can be found for his rare disease. Ultimately, a cure is found and David's 'mother' Monica, who finds herself unable to continue caring for him, abandons him to fend for himself in an ugly vision of future society.
Osment, who earned a plethora of awards - including an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor - for his role in 'The Sixth Sense' two years earlier, delivers a dazzling performance as David. You would imagine that even the most seasoned actor would be able to take on a role that hovers somewhere in the Uncanny Valley but he pulls it off hypnotically.
It's all too easy to be fooled by his human visage and the raw emotions he is capable of displaying but Osment portrays him so effectively that the subtle mechanical traits seep through the exterior, pervading the air around the character. For example: David doesn't blink, his posture is unnaturally perfect and his unwavering emotion towards Monica is too naïve to belong to even the simplest human. This devotion leads him to seek out the Blue Fairy of Pinocchio fame in order to become a real boy and regain Monica's acceptance.
Gigolo Joe, played by Jude Law, who is perhaps the most interesting character in the film, assists him in this quest. Joe is a male prostitute mecha who breaks through the programming barrier in order to go with David rather than continue satisfying customers. However, in contrast to David, he is quite noticeably non-human with an unnatural glaze to his exterior and the ability to change his appearance in order to achieve maximum satisfaction from his customers. His ability for belief is also significantly less than David's and on one occasion he directly confronts him about the likely non-existence of the Blue Fairy.
The film was directed by Steven Spielberg who took up the mantle after the death of would-be director Stanley Kubrick whose presence can still be felt in the finished product. Kubrick's vision was considerably darker but surprisingly, the emotion that the film manages to achieve was still present. Perhaps the emotional nature of the film despite the main character lacking a certain je ne sais quoi is it's greatest accomplishment.
Critics were mixed when the film was first released ten years ago and since then some have warmed to it's charms but others still haven't revisited what I consider to be a masterpiece. I suspect that they were expecting a bleak, profound sci-fi on a level with Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (which was also not warmly received on release) and became blind to what lay before them - a fascinating, emotional fairy tale that is every bit as contemplative without the cold, pessimistic atmosphere.
One of the greatest TV shows of the noughties. a refreshing show and a show you'll easily get hooked on. Season 3-4 trailed off a bit but 5-6 made sure it was a great end to a great show
A laugh a minute from beginning to end. Everyone can relate to what he jokes about. From the London riots to a five hour flight with a child in front of you. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
To sum up. I'll say two words to you......Lee Evans. The funniest man in comedy
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy