Having read the book a while ago, I’d forgotten quite a bit of the story so there were plenty of surprises. You can feel the tension rising throughout the film as it heads towards the climatic event at the end (no spoilers!!).
All three of the main actors (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint) are superb.
Only complaint is that the ending was changed a bit… unless they’ve got a reason that will become clear in the next installment it might prove to be a big mistake.
We went out last night to see the new Bond film… I had made the mistake of reading some negative reviews before I went which straight away clouded my opinion of it. Anyway, I’ll try not to give away too much plot but here’s my opinion on it.
Good bits…
Daniel Craig – by far and away the best Bond ever. You really feel every punch and kick… also, he’s a really good actor. He was the best thing in the film. The film doesn’t try to outdo Casino Royale which would have made it even more hyperactive, but instead it tries to expand on the development of Bond and this organisation called “Quantum” (very similar to SPECTRE). You feel as though this Bond film is preparing the way for future stories… some would argue that you didn’t need to do that but I think that it makes the future more interesting.
However…
The theme tune is utter garbage. The story is a bit of a mess – it jumps all over the place and doesn’t make sense a lot of the time, simply because it is trying to be too deep… The action sequences are full on… in fact there are so many chases that after a while it gets a bit tedious. It simply doesn’t have the charm of previous films, the script isn’t very sharp and the villain is rubbish. About as scarey and threatening as one of my lecturers.
Watched this last night… I really enjoyed it. Fun, exciting, good effects, reasonably good story but not trying too hard like the previous Hulk film.
When Hulk did utter the immortal line I did really get excited.
Well worth the evening out…
Also, we visited a new burger place in the Brewery in Cheltenham – VERY nice… I had the New Yorker as well as the biggest onion rings I have ever seen. We’ll be back there soon…
To be honest, I’m fed up with going to the DVD store and having to choose between films like Hostel 2 and I love Chuck. If anyone has some good suggestions for GOOD films that are out at the moment on DVD that I might have missed they would be greatfully received!
I am a H U G E fan of the Simon Mayo show on Radio 5 Live, and especially the Mark Kermode Film Review. Here are the top 10 Christmas films… the Fozzy Bear impression makes this worth watching alone.
Went with the lovely wife to see this last Saturday… and to be honest I was disappointed. And I fell asleep (much to the amusement of Nell). It wasn’t very memorable or that funny. It had a good idea but was far too long for an animation. Plus one of the young people that I work with had told me the whole story before I got there.
Got this out on Monday because our local DVD rental place has nothing else but crap horror on the shelves.
PLOT: Will Ferrell stars as Harold Crick who finds himself in the middle of a story being written by Emma Thompson. She is trying to think of a way of killing him off so he sets out to find her to stop his death.
REVIEW: Will Ferrell cannot, repeat CANNOT do serious. At all. Nor should he try. I fell asleep and missed the end. I haven’t bothered to put it back on to finish it. However, Dustin Hoffman was great and funny. Maggie Gyllenhall was weird and quirky (as usual). Emma Thompson was also weird and quirky. Queen Latifa was rubbish. The story was just too odd for me. 6/10.
Brilliant. Best film I’ve seen this year (I think). As the final part of a trilogy it is superb. Matt Damon is brilliant in it and you are on the edge of your seat the whole way through. The only issue I had was with the people with me who kept saying, “that would never happen in real life”. ITS A FILM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You need to be alert though when you watch it as the action is VERY fast. Trailer below. 9/10.
The Shooter – action revenge film with Mark “Funky Bunch” Walberg. Lots of shooting and running and more shooting. And some explosions. Tries to make a political point about Iraq and fails miserably. A few twists towards the end keeps you interested. Not one for those who like their films too intelligent. 7/10
Poseidon. Not very good. Quite boring. Kurt Russel dies (best bit). I watched this whilst building IKEA furniture. And it provided good background noise. I wouldn’t bother unless you’re building furniture. 4/10
Going to see the Bourne Ultimatum tomorrow. Now that looks good.
Harry Potter… went to see it last night at the lovely (yet far too expensive) Cineworld. I’ve read all the books so far and seen all the films so far. I didn’t really enjoy this book because it was far too long so I thought that the film would be good because they would have to cut it down. But… I got a bit bored. It felt like a film that had to link one story to another. There were some great characters and performances (especially Daniel Radcliffe as Harry) but it was hard work to watch because there were lots of things unexplained and left for people to work out. If you hadn’t read the book you’d have struggled even more I would think. Aside from all that I did think it was alright and I’m looking forward to the next book next week. 7.5/10.
NB: Just wanted to add that there are some fantastic performances from Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, and especially from Imelda Staunton as Delores Umbridge. That is one frightening teacher. The more I think about it there were lots of good bits – just that the initial material wasn’t great.
Long. Complicated. You’ll like it if you can cope with films of nearly 3 hrs (Lord of the Rings aside) that need concentration. Not bad though. 7.5/10. (Writing this before it has finished - will upgrade score if the ending is blinding).
Rubbish. Too long. Got bored. Here’s my problem with the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (quite clearly going to carry on to at least 4)… the first one was good. It was funny, original and well done. The main problem was that it made loads of money so they felt that they had to release another 2. Both of which were rubbish, too long and boring. It happened with the Matrix too – first film was great, the other two weren’t. Anyway, Pirates 3 – 5/10.
Saw this film on DVD over the weekend. Rubbish. Crap. Poor. Boring (I fell asleep in a film of less than 90 mins). Dire. Waste of Steve Coogan. Don’t watch it. 2/10.
If you haven’t seen the film yet, I won’t tell you the ending… just to say that Spiderman dies and M J marries Harry Osbourne
Anyway, went out with my lovely wife, her brother and his family on Saturday night to see the first of many “blockbusters” (where does this word come from?) this summer. And how disappointing it was to be BORED during a comic book film, particularly as the first two Spiderman films were so good. There was some good stuff in it about forgiveness v revenge and I liked the restoration of one of the characters. The bit in the res but on the whole it was too long, badly edited and all about CGI. As for Peter’s change of image to look like an emo on a bad day… not sure about that but hey if you like that kind of thing…
So overall verdict… generally a bit disappointed – again, even if a comic book film has no script and bad acting you shouldn’t get bored. However, the stuff on forgiveness and revenge was good and will provide me the youth worker with stacks of material for the next few months… 6.5/10
Saw this earlier in the week…
Got 
The Shooter – action revenge film with Mark “Funky Bunch” Walberg. Lots of shooting and running and more shooting. And some explosions. Tries to make a political point about Iraq and fails miserably. A few twists towards the end keeps you interested. Not one for those who like their films too intelligent. 7/10
I watched this whilst building IKEA furniture. And it provided good background noise. I wouldn’t bother unless you’re building furniture. 4/10
Long. Complicated. You’ll like it if you can cope with films of nearly 3 hrs (Lord of the Rings aside) that need concentration. Not bad though. 7.5/10. (Writing this before it has finished - will upgrade score if the ending is blinding).
Rubbish. Too long. Got bored. Here’s my problem with the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (quite clearly going to carry on to at least 4)… the first one was good. It was funny, original and well done. The main problem was that it made loads of money so they felt that they had to release another 2. Both of which were rubbish, too long and boring. It happened with the Matrix too – first film was great, the other two weren’t. Anyway, Pirates 3 – 5/10.
If you haven’t seen the film yet, I won’t tell you the ending… just to say that Spiderman dies and M J marries Harry Osbourne 
