The Raid - A Review

5 Stars - awesomeness, plain and simple

The Raid, or Indonesians fighting...

The Raid is an Indonesian film about a group of police officers trying to take down a ruthless crime lord by taking on his entire tower block full of criminals. It is awesome.

The plot is simple enough to not get in the way of wall to wall action scenes, which is what the film is, a whole bunch of action scenes, and they are brilliant action scenes, creative fight choreography, brutally detailed and painfully realistic.

Not a minute of this films action is boring and it's all shot well with only a couple of bits of shaky cam and even then it's shaky cam done in a way that emphasises the action not distracts from it.

This will never get old!

In short one of the best action films ever made, don't be put off by the subtitles, go see it.

Sleuth - A Comparison

5 Stars (1972) and 4 Stars (2007)

Sleuth is the name of two films, both starring Michael Caine, one from 1972 and one from 2007. The original stars Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine and the remake stars Michael Caine and Jude Law. The Story of both films is fairly simple, Andrew Wyke (Olivier, then Caine) has learned that Milo Tindle (Caine then Law) wants to marry his wife. As such he invites him to his country home so they can enact a robbery of Wyke's jewels so that Tindle has the money from the jewels and Wyke has the money from the insurance, and all soon devolves into a series of vicious mind games between the two.

Laurence Olivier is a far better Wyke than Michael Caine, both play the part very well, but Olivier's character is more defined, they establish his love of games early on and it is what fuels the film, whereas Michael Caine gets no evident passion for the mind games, so when they start it feels almost out of character.

Also Caine is a far better Tindle than Jude Law, again both are wonderful actors who play their parts very well, but Caine's Tindle seems more intelligent, you can more believe him matching wits with Wyke, also his idea of mind games is far more perverse and dark hearted than Law's, though that is down to writing not acting. however Law's Inspector Black is a bit more believably different than Caine's Inspector Doppler, but that is mostly down to make up effects.

The writing of both is good, but Anthony Schaffer came up with the play so naturally his screenplay is the superior one, that said the remake has the clever wordplay and energetic back and forth of Harold Pinter writing it. However the story works better in the original, mainly for the games being more established, the humiliation of Tindle being far more complete and the mind games being more exciting.

The new film puts a lot of focus on spectacle, the design of the building is made to be eye catching, and this subtracts somewhat from the charm the original had, where the only thing to really focus on was the performances as they were the focus, the remake seems often too concerned with making the set more interesting to look at than the actors.

The Winner

To sum up, the original Sleuth is fantastic, the remake is also very good, it just would have been a lot better if I hadn't already seen the original.

Beauty and the Beast in 3D - A Review

5 Stars - Of Course

Everyone loves this film, it's a classic, I don't need to say anything other than the 3D doesn't add anything but it works fine

Dark Shadows - A Review

1.5 Stars - An Unfocused Mess

Okay Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, it's about time you take a break from each other...

Dark Shadows is based on an American Soap Opera of the same name and feels as though it's trying to force about 3 or 4 series worth of story arcs into just under 2 hours, and as such it comes off as not knowing just what the hell it should be focusing on.

The acting is over the top, but in a bad way, over the top acting works if only a couple of people chew the scenery, but here everybody was doing it, especially Johnny Depp, who needs to stick to more subtle roles, because that's what he's a lot better at.

Depp's character, Barnabus Collins, is remarkably annoying, not funny and not really all that likeable. He's another one of those vampires whining about how it sucks to be cursed with eternal youth, this is getting really old and I hate it, Vampires need to be more like Dracula and actually enjoy their abilities, not cry over how much it isn't fair. Grow a pair vampires.

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton need to take a break for a few years, when they started out making films together it was great, now it's becoming stale and uninteresting, we're getting less films of the calibre of Edward Scissorhands, and more films along the lines of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The original guy looks way more awesome, way to screw it up Tim Burton

In short, a bad film, avoid.

Marley - A Review

5 Stars - sensational

A wonderful documentary about the king of Reggae, Bob Marley.

I personally don't listen to Marley's music, but this film fascinated me and kept my interest the whole way through.

Filled with interesting stories and anecdotes by people who knew and worked with Marley, this is a definitive film for those with even a passing interest in his music.

1945-1981

Very good and worth a watch

Macbeth - 2001

Macbeth is, in my opinion Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, so when I can watch a version of it I will.

This version is okay, but nothing special, except for Antony Sher's performance as Macbeth, which had all the subtlety and layers that the character deserves. Everything was visibly bubbling away under the surface, though towards the end he joined the rest of the cast in being a bit too over the top for my taste.

Harriet Walker was also pretty good at times as Lady Macbeth, though I felt she lacked the strength and force that the character should have, and though this makes her fall into madness more plausible, it does also make her a less interesting character to watch.

The Weird Sisters were dreadful. Completely over the top and all dialogue delivered so quickly and quietly it was almost impossible to hear what they were saying. Just bad.

The location of the Roundhouse theatre where it was filmed was very interesting, giving a lot of good spaces for the production to explore and use, often giving quite a claustrophobic edge to it and helping to capture the mood.

To sum up, if you're a fan of Macbeth I'd say give it a watch, some bits are worth it, if not then try and find a better version than this to make you a fan of Macbeth.

Safe - A Review

4 Stars - Badass fun

Jason Statham kills people... what more do you want from a film?

Safe tells the story of Jason Statham as a depressed former policeman, who saves a young chinese girl who is being hunted by various gangsters for her photographic memory.

The action is strong and plentiful and for the majority not overburdened by shaky cam.

Statham's character is very easy to sympathise with, and is also very fun to watch being a badass, A very good performance from one of the best action stars of recent years.

Which one of us is the role-model again?

To sum up, a good enjoyable watch.