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FF:QLD At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings

Discussion in 'Oceania Discussion Boards' started by casual-jedi, Aug 3, 2006.

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  1. Last_Chael

    Last_Chael Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 25, 2006
    Actually it seems there is! :D I was reading some kind of junk mail yesterday and noticed that there is now a dvd containing all their short films. Was selling for about $30 I think. Can't remember where, but jsut keep your eye out! :D
     
  2. morgan-aleghieri

    morgan-aleghieri Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Heh you missed the boat on that one LC, we noted that one a month or so ago, possibly in the DVD thread. Ikeep seeing it in stores but not buying it...

    edit:
     
  3. Kahlan72

    Kahlan72 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 27, 2000
    Saw a few movies over the weekend I've been meaning to see a while. Took free foxtel movies to get me to watch.

    Walk The Line was much better than I expected. I mean I knew they won awards and such but still couldn't amke myself see it. Was really good though and the acting was incredible. I haven't relaly seen Johhny cash on stage much but Me Phoenix was SO spot on. Good bios are good movies, and considering how much I love voyeuristic reality inside people's lives stories, it's amazing I don't watch more. anyway, not a bad film, and worth the time.

    Keeping Mum. Silly little British dark comedy about death and family and sex. So like Death at a funeral but a bit more British I guess. Good characters and was fun. Loved Rowan Atkinson in it, playing it pretty straight. Nice to watch him actually act. Anyway, this was at 530 am on Sunday and I enjoyed it. Fun.

    Saw a tiny bit of MI3 and still want to see the rest. Looks alright.

    and thanks to Morgs, saw the rest of the Jane Eyre series that showed on the ABC over recent weeks which was smashing. Not quite a movie, but good all the same.

    Bout all :)




     
  4. BigBossNass1138

    BigBossNass1138 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    I was briefly talking to people about this at the Lan party, and I thought I should make a post about it. The year's coming to an end, folks, and it's coming up to award season, so I thought it would be fun if QLDFF chimed in on what their favourite and least-favourite movies of the year were.

    Keep in mind, these have to be movies that were released this year, as opposed to, say, something that came out a while back and you only saw for the first time in the last 12 months. So now, without further ado, here's mine:

    WORST FILM: Now, to be fair, this category perhaps should be called biggest disappointment, because I'm never going to go an deliberately see a movie that looks awful. The closest I'm going to get to that is a movie that looked good in previews and didn't live up to expectations. So with that said...

    Spiderman 3.

    Yowza. If there was one movie recently that demonstrated what happens when you spend a couple hundred million bucks on special effects and half a lazy Sunday afternoon crapping out the script, it was this. I love Spiderman 2. It's right up there with X-Men 2 and Batman Begins as one of my all-time favourite comic book movies. And man did they drop the ball on the sequel. The visuals were beyond gorgeous, but the script was a schizophrenic nightmare. Too many bad guys, too many plotlines, and way, way too much jazz dancing and pelvis-thrusting from Tobey Maguire. If you take it as a purely thematic thing it rounds out the Spiderman trilogy really well. It's just a pity that the actual implementation was so poor.

    So yeah, there were doubtless plenty of worse movies this year, but I didn't see them. Spiderman 3 was the only time I walked out of a cinema feeling bummed about what I'd just seen.



    BEST FILM: I kind of feel like I should have something more highbrow here. My selected film sure isn't going to win any Oscars. But I didn't really see many Capital-S Serious movies this year. Not through lack of desire, as such, I just never got around to it. But the thing is, I think that even if I had, Hot Fuzz would still be my pick for best.

    Hot Fuzz is a movie made for people who love movies. Love going to movies, love seeing movies, love the tropes and cliches and general silliness of the genres it pays homage to. Because it truly is a homage. It's not a parody of action films, or a spoof of them, it's a love letter. An adoring tribute to the Michael Bays and Jerry Bruckhiemers of the world, thanking them for all the moronic fun they've provided with us, all the gunshots and explosions they've plastered across our screens, and a tacit admission of how much we love it. Nick Frost, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright are certified, card-carrying god damn geniuses. They hit every single beat, every note, every crescendo a good action movie is supposed to have, but they do it with the wacky and oh so very British humour I love so much. Pegg absolutely nails the role of tough-as-nails gritty action hero, cementing his status as one of the most versatile actors around, and Timothy Dalton chews the scenery with so much glorious relish it's surprising you don't see him flossing his teeth in the background of every scene he's not otherwise taking part in. If nothing else, it's absolutely the most quotable film of the year. "This **** just got real" is now a solid and irreplaceable part of my personal lexicon.

    And Simon Pegg fly-kicks and old lady in the face. That's so god-damn awesome words fail me.


    So what say the rest of you? Chime in with your two or more cents on the issue.
     
  5. Lozza

    Lozza Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 8, 2005
    Yeah, I'd agree with that pretty much...

    Wait was Pan's Labyrinth this year or last year?
     
  6. NeecH

    NeecH Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 14, 2003
    Pan's Labyrinth was this year.

    Just saw I Am Legend - Spoiler Free Review:

    This is not I Robot, this is not a Men in Black movie. I think many Will Smith fans that go into this movie are going to be a little shocked by what they get. I also think that many on the geek side are going to be a little surprised that they're not watching another all-CGI Hollywood blockbuster from the Director of Constantine. The funniest thing you'll hear Will Smith say in this movie was the 'vegetables' line from the trailer - seriously!

    I'm not going to say that Will Smith is Oscar-worthy in his performance mainly because I think he's better than what merits an Oscar nowadays. His portrayal of Robert Neville is so real (at least, what I can imagine to be real given the circumstances of the movie) and so detailed you genuinely feel sad watching him struggle through this empty world alone. You feel like you should be yelling at the screen "Hey, it's not so bad, we're all here watching you. You're not alone!" but he can't hear you where he is.

    A scene that shows this perfectly is at the very beginning of the movie; We've all seen this part in the trailers where he's hunting a deer and just as he's about to get himself some good ol' fashioned fresh meat, a lioness snags the bounty away from him. The conflict of the situation is all in his eyes, he's worked for that meat and he doesn't want to give it up so easily. Even when the male arrives, cubs in tow Neville still doesn't want to just back down but this is the new law of the city - everyone and everything for themselves and the lioness was just that little bit quicker so she wins.

    It struck me when I walked out of this movie how I really enjoyed The Omega Man with Charlton Heston when I first saw it. How the monsters were a little creepy and Heston was great at his usual scenery chewing. But not now - Now, when I think back to that adaptation of I Am Legend, I just can't enjoy it compared to this one. Charlton Heston seemed like he was having a good time in that movie, driving around in fast cars on empty streets, scavenging from dead people's houses - he was having a laugh at humanity's expense! The fast car and the scavenging are still present in this version but they're a means to an end and that end is survival, not enjoyment.

    So, what about the monsters in this version? Well, they scared the absolute crap out of me! Sure, they look a little too CGI at times but that actually doesn't detract from the fear they create. It's a scary thought that the world as you know it is almost entirely dead and the only survivors are trying their hardest to eat your face when all you want to do is help them.

    I think you guys are going to be surprised by this movie, just like I was. Will Smith is at his serious best (as opposed to his 'wise-cracking' best which is also good) and considering this is only Francis Lawrence's 2nd movie (directing) I think they both deserve a whole lot of praise for this film!

    9.8 / 10 =D=
     
  7. Lozza

    Lozza Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 8, 2005
    Thanks, couldn't really remember - saw it on a Friday, after happy hour, thank goddness I didn't need the subtitles or I'd have been in trouble.

    Pan's Labyrinth takes #1 this year for me. Beautiful, touching, and engaging. Wonderfully shot, great script, highlighting the great sadness and violence of the era it was set in.
     
  8. Magnus_Darcrider

    Magnus_Darcrider Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 24, 2005
    According to release date info, Pan's Labyrinth was last year. Hmmm.

    Anyway,

    Best film: Zodiac

    Worst film: Ghost Rider

    Favourite film: Hot Fuzz

    Most disappointing film: Spider-man 3

    Now, let's talk about Shoot 'Em Up, or as I prefer to call it, Clive Owen's Tuesday :p

    A guy at a bus stop chewing on a carrot sees a pregnant woman getting chased by armed goons. Against his better judgement, he intervenes and saves the woman, killing the goons with his carrot and the gun he takes from his first victim. Things get sillier from there.

    Throw physics, ballistics, engineering and good sense out the window and you'll have a great time. The plot, what there is of it, is just an excuse for Clive Owen to shoot loads of people in an entertaining fashion and say the occasional bad cheesey one liner.

    Paul Giamatti's fun in this as the villain of the piece. He gets to chew the scenery and be generally very disturbing.

    Monica Bellucci's there. Need I say more?

    Oddly, if this film had Clive Owen exhibiting mind control powers, it would probably be exactly like that script Patrick Stewart was talking about in his Extras sketch...

    Its fun; being nothing more or less than what it says it is.

    Be seeing you,

    Magnus Darcrider
     
  9. Luke_Sparkewalker

    Luke_Sparkewalker Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Oct 23, 2001
    Yes, Shoot em up is quite something:p saw it the other night.

    anywho..

    Best film: Hot Fuzz
    (I've seen I am Legend in a press screening last week and if it came out here in 2007 it would have to be the best. Simply great)

    Worst film: AVP2

    Favourite film: Transformers

    Most disappointing film: POTC: AWE

     
  10. Kahlan72

    Kahlan72 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 27, 2000
    Anyone awake that has actually seen Mr Magoriums..taking the kid today and wanted to hear someones views. I should google huh. Go to one of thos Christian movies for children reviewing sites.. ;)
     
  11. Kahlan72

    Kahlan72 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 27, 2000
    Wellll... Mr Magoriums...

    The kid was bored, and said so, and the themes were a bit much for a kid his age, but that's fair enough.

    I actually liked it. Thought Dustin Hoffman and Jason Bateman were great as was the kid. Natalie was good, but the character wasn't in depth in any particular way. Very simple story and really too short for anything intricate. Visually cool and a nice feel about it. Be nice to see it again sometime without the munchkin. As much as I love him, he's no movie companion yet.

    Probably a little forgettable, but glad to have seen it. 7/10
     
  12. Magnus_Darcrider

    Magnus_Darcrider Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 24, 2005
    National Treasure: Book of Secrets

    Having restored his family's honour, Benjamin Franklin Gates and his father Patrick are horrified when at a symposium dedicated to honouring Ben's great grandfather Thomas Gates as a hero of the American Civil War, a mysterious man claims and has proof that Thomas Gates masterminded the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

    With the Gates family name mud once again in the eyes of the Academic Community and the American Public, Ben sets out to clear his great-grandfather's name, and stumbles across another conspiracy harkening back to the darkest days of the Civil War.

    The first film could easily have been dismissed as The Da Vinci Code for kids, with a pro-American tilt, and while accurate, it really does the film a disservice.

    This sequel is very much the same; the Gates and their long suffering assistant Riley Poole have fallen on hard times despite their earlier successes, which gives them a bit of added incentive to chase after the treasure tantilisingly buried in the conspiracy.

    What I do like about this film and the original is that it's tastefully pro-American; none of the "Ra-Ra!" stuff we usually get. Ben Gates believes in the history of the United States, making the Gates Family de facto guardians of its legacy, which is an idea I find appealing. More people need to believe in that sort of thing.

    If this film has one flaw, its that Ed Harris; while making a great and also sympathetic villain; doesn't have the charisma of Sean Bean from the first film :p

    However, the star power on display here is mind-boggling. You've got three Oscar Winning actors and two nominated actors in the starring and support line up. You've got to wonder how the Mouse House pulled it off.

    I'm sure the answer is simply "Merry Bushells of Cash" :p

    A fun little family friendly romp. Also, Diane Kruger is gorgeous. I take back everything I said about her looking like a drag queen in the first promo shots for Troy :p

    Be seeing you,

    Magnus Darcrider
     
  13. Magnus_Darcrider

    Magnus_Darcrider Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 24, 2005
    I watch too many children's films...

    Enchanted

    In the fairytale realm of Andalasia, the maiden Giselle tries to create a mockup of her True Love she dreamed about the night before with the help of her talking woodland creature friends, led by the chipmunk Pip. Meanwhile, Prince Edward, stepson of the (obviously evil) Queen Narissa has bagged himself another troll with the help of his squire Nathaniel. Edward's pretty good at this; turns out it's a plot by Narissa with the help of Nathaniel to keep Edward busy so that he never meets, falls in love, and marries a girl, cos the little upstart will obviously overthrow Narissa.

    Unfortunately the troll escapes, and drawn by Giselle's singing, attacks her home and friends. Fortunately, Edmund saves the day, and once he and Giselle set eyes on one another, its True Love at First Sight. They ride off into the sunset to be married the next day.

    Narissa, having no truck with that, disguises herself as a crone before the wedding, and tricking Giselle, pushes her into a well that leads to a portal to somewhere "Where there is no 'Happily Ever After'."

    Giselle falls into darkness, and emerges into a complete foreign place; New York City. And this is where the fun begins.

    Enchanted is to traditional Disney Films what Galaxy Quest is to original Star Trek, a fantastic homage and satire of the work and genre. The Mouse House should have done something like this ten years ago when traditional cell animation was more prevalent; in fact the original script for Enchanted was first written in 1997 - shows you how long it takes to make these things.

    Anyway, I loved this film; its far too joyous really. I suspect an insidious plot

    The traditional cell animation in the opening sequence is great; its a pity Disney laid off most of its traditional animation department over the last few years when they decided to work exclusively in CGI animation. It also gets the ball rolling with the injokes; the troll's loincloth is made up of the clothes of earlier Disney Princesses, and it's wearing Ariel's sea shells as earrings.

    Amy Adams as Giselle is amazing; she's gorgeous, and has qualities of Julie Andrews (who narrates this film) and Megan Follows (its the hair). Awards scuttlebutt says this is a career making role for her, equivalent to the aforementioned Andrews' Mary Poppins. And while she can do all the traditonal Disney princess stuff (summon animals, inspire onlookers to sing and dance, make clothes easily) with beauty, grace, exuberance and keeps a straight face the whole time, what sold me was her ability to convey naivity and sadness. In a scene in Robert Phillips's (Patrick Dempsey's character) law office, Giselle cannot understand the concept of divorce. Marriage is meant to be Forever; the idea that it could end causes her great pain, and Adams nails the scene. The idea of the concept and institution being so simple to her is actually rather sweet, its sad that we make it so complex these days.

    Patrick Dempsey as the lawyer who rescues Giselle from the streets of New York is a tragic character. His own romanticism has been squashed flat by the real world when his wife abandoned him and their daughter, leaving him cynical, and trying to prepare his young daughter for the real world by not encouraging fairytales or make believe. Interesting character choice that the wife left, rather than passed away, especially for a Disney film; maybe that would have been too cliched. Anyway, its clever casting, thanks to Grey's Anatomy Dempsey is already a modern Prince Charming, so there's already a lot of audience goodwill there. His best bits are during the musical number in Central Park, where he can't understand how come everyone seems to know the song Giselle is singing and all the appropriate dance steps. Also, his chest hair breaks the Disney Princess paradigm. You'll see what I mean :p

    James Marsden continues his campaign to prove he is just as awesome as Hugh Jackman by playi
     
  14. morgan-aleghieri

    morgan-aleghieri Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Also to be noted is that the Pregnant Lady in the apartment block is the voice of Pocahantas, and the woman in the sitcom that Nathaniel watches is the voice of Belle... I believe the wiki page has a fairly comprehensive list of all the official references and injokes.

    Lately I've been likening the movie to a Krispy Kreme doughnut. My Krispy Kreme experience was that I enjoyed the doughnuts in melbourne, but didn't think they were so special as to cart a box home like LC did. Upon arriving home though, I realised that whilst they didn't seem special, I was craving the damn things. Enchanted is like that. I've been reliving all the bits that I loved about the movie in my head for a few days. I think I will actually go see this again before it leaves cinemas.

    Anywho, I'm still at home so I'll finish my review when I get to work [face_blush]
     
  15. Magnus_Darcrider

    Magnus_Darcrider Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 24, 2005
    MD's Review Wagon rolls onwards... I will keep some of these brief however as people have already put up excellent reviews.

    I Am Legend - A great adaptation; Will Smith is beyond brilliant in his portrayal of a Last Man on Earth. The film is amazingly tense at times; the moment Robert Neville enters a "nest" I don't think anyone breathed in the cinema I was in. Unfortunately it loses its way when other people turn up, but Will Smith continues to be great, and it's not enough to derail what was great that came before. Well worth checking out.

    Death at A Funeral - Full of a cast of British "You Know, That Guy/Girl", this is a rather amusing film set at a funeral with various hijinks ensuing. The plot is quite predictable if you're paying vague amounts of attention, and there's a case of gross out humour I didn't really need. However the rest is charming; Matthew Macfadyen of Spooks (Tom Quinn) and Pride & Prejudice (Mr Darcy) fame works well as the lead, and Alan Tudyk is hilarious as a funeral guest who's taken some mislabelled drugs; he's apparently getting a Best Supporting Actor nod for his role. Frank Oz (remember him?) has done a great job with the film, and it is certainly in the same league as other famous British comedies of recent years.

    No Country For Old Men

    West Texan Sheriff Ed Tom Bell narrates how the country is becoming increasingly violent in June 1980 as we observe Anton Chigurh violently escape police custody, murdering innocent bystanders as he flees. Meanwhile, Llewelyn Moss whilst hunting near the Rio Grande finds the remnants of a botched drug sale that turned into a massacre. Finding the money from the sale, Llewelyn takes it, and soon realises that people are after him to get it back. Sending his wife to safety, Llewelyn goes on the run, pursued by Chigurh, a hitman hired by the drug barons to retrieve their money. Trailing after them both is Sheriff Bell, who can ultimately only observe the aftermath of events and reflect on them in context of his advanced years.

    Well hey, the Coen Brothers are back and in fine form after more recent disappointments, this is a great and worthy crime drama that is ultimately a Twilight Film with a different angle of approach; rather than seeing everything from the perspective of an elderly protaganist; in this case Sheriff Bell. Here he's merely an observer to events, events that make him realise that he is too old for this job now as the world changes and gets darker around him.

    Tommy Lee Jones is subdued as Sheriff Bell, I like the world weariness he carries with him, coupled with the sense of dedication to see the job done.

    Josh Brolin is surprisingly good as Llewelyn, a man with the boogeyman on his tail. He plays the character as believably resourceful, pragmatic and competent without ever being unconvincing.

    Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh has helped to create one of the more sinister film monsters of recent years. An unstoppable, uncompromising, plain psychotic killing machine that completes his work with brutal efficiency and a unique signature weapon. Its he who really pushes the film forward as the primary antagonist, and the performance is great to watch, disturbing as it is.

    What is interesting about this film is that there is no story catharsis; bad people do bad things and get away with them, and the major confrontations happen off screen. It also ends fairly abruptly too, but these are all good things and should help cement this film as a classic in years to come. Highly Recommended.

    Atonement

    Thirteen year old Briony Tallis of a well to do English family prior to World War Two sees something she shouldn't have seen and misinterprets it for a variety of reasons which results in her older sister Cecilia's love Robert Turner being sent to gaol and being forced to fight in World War Two four years later while Briony comes to realise she may have made a mistake and tries to get back in touch with her older sister and Sweet Merciful Buddha I dispised this film; it went from
     
  16. morgan-aleghieri

    morgan-aleghieri Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Cloverfield I do like to think was probably a good movie, but I myself was also quite nauseous, which was very distracting. I don't think I've felt so ill from motion sickness since the last time I went camping up at O'Reilleys [face_thinking] (which to get to you must drive up a very long and extremely windy road up a mountain). That's not all the movie's fault though, the sheer size of the screen has been an issue for me in the past and there was something going on with the sound in the cinema that grated somewhat - to the extent that all of the ads and trailers prior to watch were also hard to focus on (barring of course the Iron Man trailer which was pure glee [face_mischief] *hums theme song*).

    There were definitely some great moments in the piece that make me want to give the movie a second chance on a smaller screen. There's some very touching moments, moments where I near-well leapt out of my seat, and some humorous touches added by our eyes for the movie, Hud. There were some great shots of the monster levelling the city from the helicopter vantage point, although because it's on shaky-cam2000 it is still hard to see which was sad.

    But yeah, if you're not usually prone to motion sickness, you should enjoy it. :)
     
  17. BigBossNass1138

    BigBossNass1138 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    Really enjoyed Cloverfield a great deal. I never got swept up in the hype that's been doing the rounds of the Webotubes. Instead I just caught the trailer, heard what the deal with it was, and liked what I saw. Consequently, unlike some online commentators who were left disappointed due to expectations that were too high or just plain incorrect, I went into the cinema and saw exactly what I expected to see: Godzilla meets the Blair Witch Project, and a damn fine job they did of that little combination too. Unlike the suffering previous posters, I suffered no nausea from the shaky camera. The shaky, incredibly amateur camerawork was critical to what was so great about the movie: it's found footage (literally, it begins with a US military seal and the note that it's classified footage recovered from the disaster zone), it's taken by people frenzied with fear and in the midst of something horrific. So the shaky-cam is not a bad thing by any means, but if you are the kind of person who gets nauseous from that kind of thing, definitely don't see it on the IMAX screen.


    Choices are made by some of the characters that when heard about out of context sound stupid. In the film though, while they are still foolish choices, they make sense and you can easily understand why the choices are made and the motivations for them.

    Completely agree. I'd read some reviews criticising characters for doing stupid or nonsensical things, but was very pleased to find that in context they made perfect sense for traumatised people in that particular situation. There was one thing that I thought stretched credibility a bit far, but Magnus gave me another point of view on it, which in hindsight does make a lot of sense.

    As for companion pieces, absolutely. My understanding is that despite the complete lack of exposition or resolution in the film regarding the monster and its nature and origin (which I think it a good thing, and something pulled off really well), a lot of time and thought was put in by the production team. A spinoff/quasi-sequel movie telling the same story from a different PoV would be good, but I think I'd actually prefer a companion book, like, I dunno, "The Cloverfield Files." Declassified military reports and stuff, lots of in-universe content that digs into the backstory and indeed what happens after the tape ends.

    So yeah: unless you can't stand shaky camera work or have a serious aversion to ambiguity and things being left deliberately unresolved, definitely go see Cloverfield. Solid stuff.
     
  18. BigBossNass1138

    BigBossNass1138 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    Here's a link to a great and really kind of thought-provoking review of Cloverfield, where the reviewer basically refutes all of the various common criticisms that people have been throwing around about the film, and indeed cites those very things as the exact reasons he liked it as much as he did. I basically agree with him. It seems to be a film people either love or hate (or are at least somewhat disdainful of, accusing it of having less substance than I think it actually does). Either way, interesting read.
     
  19. NeecH

    NeecH Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 14, 2003
    Sweeney Todd

    My first outing to the theatres in 2008 and I think I may have just seen one of the best movies that the entire year will have to offer.

    I'm not going to bother writing a 10 paragraph review for the film that no one's going to bother reading... that's just not my thing. I'll keep it quick, to the point and spoiler free which is what all reviews should be;

    It's a Tim Burton movie! You're going to see a lot of Tim Burton-type stuff in this movie. If you enjoy Tim Burton movies (Planet of the Apes doesn't count), then you're going to enjoy this one.

    It's a musical! There's barely a spoken word in this movie, most of the dialogue is sung... and it's sung well! The music is great, tells the story well and sometimes, even provides a good chuckle.

    It's gory as hell! Not a movie for kids! Expect Sleepy Hollow style blood but with a more violent, hard edge to it.

    It has Borat! A little distracting but he's meant to be when you first see him.

    End of review - Go see this movie!
     
  20. Kahlan72

    Kahlan72 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 27, 2000
    I think I'd love to see Sweeney Todd, but just not a movie I'll be able to sit through due the gore and stuff. I know that's half the point of the movie..ah well.

    Juno

    I really wanted to see this film and it was pretty much what I hoped it would be. Spectacular writing and lead character. Reminding me much of another film I can't remember the title of. Scarlett Johanssen was in it as a youngster, and goth freaky girl as lead..ah crap..ghost something maybe. Oh what a good review this is SO FAR! :)

    good writing. good characters. More than one layer characters. was cool to like Jason Bateman's character in the middle and not like him at the end. Same with Jennifer Garner but reversed. Would be so nice to have been a 16 year old with Juno's confidence in herself.

    I laughed aloud enough times to call it a good comedy for me. Cringed a couple and felt glad to be following this girl around for an hour and a half or so.

    It's a shame Michael Sera doesn't need a stumt double, because he reminds me so much of our Sambo.

    Lovely story, funny and touching and quirky. And just the right combination of each.

    8.5/10
     
  21. casual-jedi

    casual-jedi Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 6, 2002
    You were onto a definate winner with Juno, Kahlan.;)
    [image=http://www.rabbireport.com/archives/2007/09/13/Juno%201.jpg]
    My two word review of the movie would be... Utterly Charming.
    Though for a lengthier summary, I would begin with a categorical statement of fact... That, if this film fails to charm you over by the time the credits roll.. You may indeed be missing the little thing that goes thump-a-pump, right there in the middle o'yer chest. Juno is one of those filmic rarities that highlights the incredible emotional yield of the celluloid medium. Beneath the sardonic wit of Juno's dialogue, and the complexities of it's beautifully crafted characters, lies the film's beating heart. A tender heart that, at the same time is also the dramatic equivalent of TNT.

    From within such a poignant core, Juno resonates a stoic sense of a wonderfully 'smart-arsed' defiance, in the face of some rather messed-up circumstances... And Juno could easily have been that bleak, heavy movie(which was indeed what I was dreading going into it). Yet by the time the fetchingly quirky theme song played again at the end of the movie, I found myself positively uplifted. In a partially conflicted, definately amused, and totally entralled fashion. Which speaks volumes of the film's ability to connect.. make one invest, and ultimately care. On that note, it comes time for me to put on my gay cowboy hat, and simply say... Do Yourself A Favour! And invest some of your precious time on Juno.. it's wizard, it's golden.
    [face_peace]

    10/10

    PS- ...And there's no dragons, I swear!:p
     
  22. BigBossNass1138

    BigBossNass1138 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    Yeah, Juno was absolutely wonderful. Ellen Page is really going to go places, she was brilliant. The whole cast was fantastic, but she obviously was the one to really stand out. I think both she and the film as a whole will be robbed if they don't pick up Oscar nominations.


    As for Michael Cerra, Kahlan, I don't know about a stunt double, but I think he needs to worry about being typecast. The three things I've seen him in (Arrested Development, a Veronica Mars episode and this) he's been playing the exact same character. :p
     
  23. Magnus_Darcrider

    Magnus_Darcrider Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Nov 24, 2005
    The film is great, but I gotta say I'm shocked, it did pick up Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay nods. Its not one of those films that feels like it should have "To the Academy, for your consideration" in brackets at the bottom of the screen.

    The only thing I can add is that I loved Juno's parents (equal parts understanding and disappointed) and the adoptive parents (completely misread them, but great performances). However, while all the teenagers' dialogue was great, it felt a bit hyper-real. Or, I'm just getting old. Still, naturalistic dialogue is hard to do, but it just felt jarring.

    Anyway, highly recommended. Though you've all seen it by now surely? :p

    Be seeing you,

    Magnus Darcrider
     
  24. BigBossNass1138

    BigBossNass1138 Jedi Knight star 5

    Registered:
    Mar 13, 2002
    Yeah, I just saw the Oscar list about half an hour after I posted that. Fantastic stuff, Juno definitely deserves the nominations.

    As for the dialogue, especially the titular character's, no, I don't find it to be quote-unquote "realistic" but it was hilarious and idiosyncratic, which was obviously the point. Juno's characterisation really came out in the way she talked. "Nah, they won't be worried. I mean, I'm already pregnant, so what other crazy shenanigans could I get up to?"
     
  25. morgan-aleghieri

    morgan-aleghieri Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    Just went to see Sweeny Todd, and I thought it was prett damn terrific. So Mr Depp can sing, and he does it well. I'll do a better review when I get to a terminal that doesn't require blood sacrifices to operate, but I will at least say that as good as it is, for those who might not enjoy graphic throat slitting imagery it might be best to wait untilthe dvd release.
     
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