Pitch Perfect - Review

Genre: Comedy, Musical?(well there's music in it )

The music in it is brilliant first off,  the remixes are just clever and well done and the choice to do the biggest songs of the last few years was smart so even recluses of music like myself were able to recognise them and enjoy it. The music was also always so fast paced that it kept the movie going at a really good pace. The only other thing to really say about the music is that its fit really well into the film , i know they are on stage so its not hard to fit it but it never felt like and now have a cut to another song, it felt very natural which is a really difficult to do as seamlessly as this film does.

The cast was just brilliant with a special focus on Anna Kendrick who was one of the most realistic teenagers I have ever seen. Most trying to play a teenager give this impression that they never were one while she was just spot on and her acting was consistent and just brilliant, seriously I cant praise her enough for this. The relationship between her and Skylar Astin( who according to imdb is in several things but I have never seen before) is really fun and again much more like a real couples relationship and they worked really well together.

The stars of Pitch perfect though were the minor characters, especially the commentators who often you only heard in voice over and just were brilliant.Their lines had to some of the best in the whole film and were just what you really want commentators to say.

In a very nice segue its time to talk of the  comedy which really is the main event. It was this weird mix of really clever humor and just blatant humor. What I mean by clever humor is jokes that arn't pointed observed or exploited but are just left to be funny in their own right. So loads of the script and particularly the commentators  had this, as well as backgrounds and sets, and all of these created this continuous sense of joviality throughout the film and it was fabulous. 

On the other side their is the more blatant comedy which I really like as well and in some points they were spot on with it, however at other points I felt like they were holding back and scared to go the whole legnth and if they had just given in a little more to the ludicrousness of their jokes i think this would have been an even better film.

My only real complaint of the film was that it was trying t do too much and then seemed to forget parts. So at the start of the film one of the lines was how they only sang songs made by female artists and then the point of how all the music was out of date was made and I thought this was going to be deadly, that they were going to preform modern songs by female artists and going to carry this idea on, however when they get modern(i dont count that as a spoiler its a comedy, plot twists are rare) they just drop that and "give me everything" by Pitbull makes it into the finals and that really let me down because I just thought that keeping it would add so much to the film.

Final word: 

I appriciate some of my complaints were from expectations but I still feel they give up easy chances to make this film so much more then it was. That being said it fills its brief and it really is a fun addition to this years comedy collection, plus if it encourages more music films I am not complaining.

7.5/10

some links to the best songs from Pitch Perfect:

riff off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q573_hDhTbE

right round: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx-cpRnEG5I

The Hobbit An Unexpected journey (i.e the first) - Movie Review

Premise: This is the first third of the hobbit book by J.R.R.Tolken and tells the tale of Bilbo Baggins,a baggins of bagend no less, and how he 13 dwarves and a wizard joined together to cross middle earth and reclaim the lonely mountain. The reason for this quest? a fire breathing dragon by the name of Smaug stole it from the dwarves alone with all their treasure and head dwarf Thorin Oakenshield is a little bitter about it.

Now to the hobbit itself, I said before I loved the first three so was rather excited to see the hobbit and ended up seeing it in both 3D and 2D so i shall start by comparing them. As in all 3D films there was a few of those obligitary shots when the camera plunges a great depth( mainly so 3D watchers don't feel cheated i suppose) and once that shot is over i started actually comparing them. The 3D i enjoyed alot more then I normally do because it was far more intergrated to the film then most, it wasnt a few grand 3D moments on what is a glorified 2D film as I find most to be.

 The Hobbit actually really effectively uses 3D and it has to be one of the first films where i really enjoyed the 3D ( maybe it was the 48 frame shot that compliments it more ?). That being said it was fun to see it didnt add anything to the film for me I didn't find the world any more or less real then i did on my 2D screening.

The set and the shooting just as in LoTR is fabulous, New Zealand is clearly a wonderful place to shoot. The sets and the world were brilliant and there is no denying that however i didnt find any of the places very unique to the film, in the other 3 there was always somewhere i remembered and particularly associated with an area but with the hobbit it was just a new cast in the same places. Also Jackson did his famous sweeping shots as his characters just trek over incredible beautiful places , for no other reason then to inform the watcher they are moving (we need such shots or us audience will assume they are actually still in the shire). I know that was famous in the first lot but I think the hobbit needed to distinguish itself a bit more and in this area it was on par but did not exceed the others.

Now to the cast and plot , the characters were really great, it had a wonderful timing to the conversations and i rarely found it strained. The characters were really great ,though admittedly there were a lot of dwarfs which really didnt seem to do anything other then just walk around, like no lines nada, but even still there was a really nice natural comradeship by the cast which made up for the accents thing (seriously there were 12 dwarves from middle earth and one born and breed in Northern Ireland, very strange). I really enjoyed the lead performers  Ian McKellen was a wonderful Gandalf as always and actually brought and developed his character which i was just really impressed with.Martin Freeman as Bilbo was really spot on with Bilbo however I remained unconvinced it was his talent, i think its more that he is like Bilbo naturally, either way it was a good preformance. 

Now i really dont believe it is possible to disscuss the hobbit without talking about how brilliant Andy Serkis was as Gollum

The single biggest thing coming from this film has to be that this man deserves an oscar and i am right on that band wagon, his half an hour is by far my favorite part of the film and the whole time he is just spectacular. He manages to both terrify and make you love Gollum who is as tragic as he is dangerous. There is even a great amount of really brilliant humor in that scene and it honestly was what got me through the whole film(that and the amazing goblin killing scene which is just spectacularly bizzare).

Finally a special topic, the legnth of the damn film, for to discuss the hobbit without talking about the timing is impossible. It was the single longest film I have ever been to that I really enjoyed. I mean i really really liked this film and am a big fan of the franchise and particurally the hobbit book , but it got towards the end when i was just horrified to learn I had another 30 minutes after Gollum left to go. When you are 50 minutes into a film and the blasted unexpected journey has yet to occur something has gone wrong in editing. I really liked all the stuff in the Shire but most of that belonged on extended addition versions and I think that first part may well have dampened many peoples view on the rest of the film, which is a pity as all in all its a really wonderful film.

Final Word: good god my review is nearly as long as the bloody film, sorry. I thought this film was a good addition to the series and didnt damage them which was a serious worry for some (george lucas you are gone but not forgotten). I think the editing team needs to be replaced sharpish and that the envelope needs to be pushed more because the warm fuzzy feeling of being back in middle earth lasts ownly so long. The hobbit has its flaws but all in all is really worth a watch.

8/10

Netflicker 5# - The Machinist, Stardust, Chicago

The Machinist: Thriller, psychological, suspense

premise: Trevor is a lonely machine worker who hasn't been able to sleep for a year and is

beginning to have flashes and lapses.

Please ignore the poor description and the questionable year long lack of sleep and just carry on with that idea. 

This was one of those films that i heard was really good and always meant to watch but didnt till now and it was my mistake because it was just so well done. I knew the premise and that the lead (Christian Bale) was fabulous and he is but in truth its far more beautiful and iconic then i could have ever imagined. 

Stardust:Fantasy, fairytale, comedy, drama(ish)

Premise:Tristan makes his way accross the wall to the magical realm to retrieve a fallen star and win the heart of victoria.

If you havnt seen this then seriously what are you plating at , its out since 2007 (yes im very  up to date this week). Its one of the best fairytales ive ever seen, tales of adventure, courage and magic. It sounds cheesy but it contains everything a fairytale should and more which just adds to how brilliant it is.

Chicago: Musical, Drama

Premise: The love of murder in chicago during the 1920s told through music, focusing on two cases and there scheming lawyers.

Another beautifully shot film, it has this cool glamerous edge to everything about it, the costumes, the sets, the people everything just speaks of wealth glamour and sex. I think its a good lead up to the great gatsby despite the difference in  topic it has a very similar style

The archs #0 an introduction

I labelled netflicker 1 as the intro and thought this was normal until one of my friends pointed out it would be much more traditional to name it 0 ,so i thought we should start out the archs on the right foot.

The archs shall be a more traditional recommedation section , they still have to be on rent (and european rent at that) I have to vary the topic and it will be published every alternatvie weekend to netflicker

please note weekend as me committing to a single day is rather ineffective

I was doing some math so i thought it might interest you , to show how much of a life I have that I run this

Netflicker : 3 films x 26 = 78

The Archs: 3 films x 26 = 78

Total : 156 films to be reviewed in a year

average legnth of film 2 hours 

2 x 156 =312 hours 

thats over 6 days of just pure watching films

My life is cool and full of meaning...

The Perks of Being a Wallflower -Review

A writer who refused to let anyone but himself direct it to the point of fighting for 8 years ... this better not be a let down , no one likes when the underdog fails after all.

To start off my view was always going to be biased because I love ,love ,love Ezra Miller so I was always going to like this film and also im a sucker for a good coming of age film.

The plot follows Logan Lerman returning to school to start high school after having a mental breakdown the school year before. He meets Ezra Miller a senior who is still in freshman woodshop and his stepsister played by Emma Watson . The story basically continues to follow the plot of their friendship developing and the dark sides of each characters past and present coming to light. The film deals with some really dark material in a very well done way it was shocking but did not in a way that would swallow the whole story only twist it ,which is exactly their purpose.

.It is fair to say even with my bias however that this was a character film and the 3 main characters dominate the whole thing. Ezra Miller was fabulous (naturally) and played a flamboyant person who happened to be gay as apposed to that he was gay being his defining feature , which is something often seen in main stream films the gay character is either overly camp or  just this flat piece of intentional normality and I think this film made him a real person which I attribute mainly to Miller.

 Also worth a serious note to be given to Logan Lerman , who i saw in Percy Jackson and had no faith in , he was wonderful managed to create a shy character who didnt need moments of "self discovery" to show the subtlety of a real person .Their are a lot of close up shots of him and I think he carried the role very well.Emma Watson was good however she was just good while her co actors were far better, It could be just that her characters didnt have the same level of subtly as she is more of an idea then a real person but still not as good.

As I said before it is a character film and while I admire Stephen Chbosky's integrity and to be fair he didnt restrict the actors but he did however add nothing towards the film.The cinematography was virtually non existent and while it didnt hurt the pace of the film it stopped it being as memorable in the after run of it and I think this is really where it fell down. However the writing of the letters was really clever and his ideas were clever.

Final Word:

Its fair to note that I didnt have much to say on the film and that maybe tells you more then it should , I enjoyed the film and loved the characters and for them its worth seeing.This is just one in a list of accomplishments for Ezra Miller , may well have launched Logan Lermans career as a serious actor and as for Chbosky and Watson ,im not sure its done either of them many favors.

7/10 (if you allow my love of miller)

5/10(on the whole)

Netflicker #4 - Youth in Revolt , 4400 , Princess Bride

It is technically still sunday for another 17 minutes so I am not Late..(basically anyway)

1. 4400: TV series , drama , fantasy/ scifi

premise:4400 people have disappeared over 60 years and then all reappear in one go from the giant ball of light (^ in case you didnt guess) without having aged or remembering what happened.They also have super powers.

I had just finished Jericho and I wanted another TV series. I admit i was skeptical on this premise but the first episode won me over , they didnt just deal with the whole government reaction locking them up but also with  the characters themselves and how returning to a totally changed world would truely be like. It manages to keep a complicated and fast paced plot grounded and I really think its worth looking if you like something outside the usual series. I warn you though ,has an even more frustrating ending then Jericho

2.The Princess Bride: fantasy , comedy , love 

premise: styled as if a fairy tale tells the story of two lovely (and very blond)characters, wesley and buttercup, torn apart by circumstance and their fight to get back to each other which includes giant rats a french giant and a man with six fingers.

I saw this when I was quite young and it remains one of the funniest films I have ever seen its really well paced comedy and is just crazily famous. I think it does a great job at creating characters without getting weighed down in comedy or with plot just a really well done film.

3.Youth in Revolt:  comedy, coming of age .

Premise: Michael Cera (playing Michael Cera) falls for a girl while on holiday and creates an alternate persona to become cool enough for her and to cause enough trouble to go live near her.

I have to admit im not Michael Ceras biggest fan , I keep thinking he can do more and its starting to seem that  is never going to happen. However I like the style of comedy he fits into and if you like those you will enjoy this same awkward honest speech and slightly off beat comedy.Its a little cruder then his other work but still funny and the supporting cast is really very good.

Netflicker #3 With the star role going to .. Black Books, Jericho and

1.Black Books: TV series, comedy

Black books is written by Dylan Moran and also stars Bill Bailey , two rather famous comedians in the uk and if you know either of them you will get the style of this comedy , quirky and somewhat crass. If its a style you like then this is really worth watching. Black Books is essentially a series of  skits that all take place in this book shop. Funny and worth a watch

2.The Skin That I Live In : drama, subtitled

One of the more intense psychotic films I have ever seen , it follows a fixated plastic surgeon and the relationship with his imprisoned patient in a growing  twisted story which explores their present and past. The film has some really iconic shots and the whole pace of it is just excellent , defiantly worth watching.

3.Jericho: TV series, drama , post apocalyptic

 One of these cult series , mainly because it was cancelled suddenly but ayway , it follows the story of a town in small town america ,Jericho, after they see mushroom bombs hitting a nearby major city and all communication or knowledge of what is happening or who even attacked them. An interesting premise with a rather optimistic view of what the town would do , they all band together and decide to share supplies to survive .It also despite the end of the world idea insists on ideas such as the cool teenager and the nerdy boy who loves her. Despite such optimism it manages to create really winning characters and plots and the actors are really great at being in the minds of the character. 

Netflicker #2 - An actual start starring :Princess Bride , The Devils Double and O Brother Where Art Thou

1.The Devils Double- Action, Drama , Subtitled

The premise :A solider in Iraq, Latif, is drafted to become the body double for Uday Hussein , Saddam Hussein's son.The film is based off Latif's biography which he wrote after the downfall of Hussein.

From the first time I saw a trailer for this film I was excited for it I thought the premise was great and really unusual and I love clean cut modern cinema and the style of this film is exactly what I like , That being said most people saw it as over done, over dramatic and just a violent film which I thought it might be and the trailer hints at that.It is a violent film and their are some very intense scenes but its far more understated then I was expecting , and the film deals with its topic really well and the pace is fast and I think really draws the audience into the sheer mania of having total power and no restraints. 

O Brother Where Art Thou ? Comedy , Adventure

Premise : Based in Mississippi during the great depression three chain gang convicts (including the lovely George Clooney) break out in an effort to find the treasure Clooneys character has hidden from before his arrest.

From the outset its clear this film is just a charming and funny film , its got some great one liners and carries really good jokes throughout the film. The humor in the film works on both subtle and blatant levels and is just really good fun to watch but also manages to touch on serious subjects without dwelling on them , making it much more then your usual one note comedies. Also just a side note the music of the film is amazingly good , very country and of the time so not for everyone but I really enjoyed it.

Sylvia  Romance, Drama

Premise : The film follows the life of the poet Sylvia Plath and looks at her stuggles with depression and her relationship with Ted Hughes.

I enjoyed this film though I suspect part of why I liked it was that I am a fan of Plath's work and that familiarity does help. Regardless of this it is a good film and really examines what two people in love are to each other and how destructive people can be .Its very subtle slow sort of film but if your in the humor that style and pace its really a very well done film .

Netflicker #1 - An introduction

So this is an idea I wanted to run with and is just recommended films to watch 

but the rule is I will be running them only based off what Netflix shows ( i dont own lovefilm , sorry) because I think Netflix does a surprisingly broad range and I liked the idea of finding films as apposed to just telling you films I liked  im going to try expand the genres and by this limitation I have to try new things instead of sticking to what I know or being lazy and naming anything that comes to mind.

It comes with three simple Guidelines/Rules

1.It will be Bi-monthly , probably Saturdays ...yes my lifes that exciting ... and will be in opposite to "the archs" which is project 2

2.I have to include at least one recent addition to netflix 

3. The three films must have notable differences (so theirs one for everyone in the audience)

Final note , I will be running off the UK Netflix which to my understanding has less american films and more european ones so sorry states 

xxxx

Dreaming Child

Liberal Arts

A film written , directed and starred in by a mildly successful TV actor ..no way anything can go badly with this scenario surely?

I do admit i was skeptical about this film when I heard it , 30 something goes back to college to see a beloved professor while in the middle of a midlife dilemma about the futility of it all blah blah blah . I have seen that film before and I really had no interest in seeing it again , particularly not one which considered itself "profound "and also the idea of him and his friendship with the young college student seemed a little creepy

Yet despite my really negative view towards this film I really enjoyed it . The pace of the film was good and it rarely dragged and a credit to Josh Radnor this movie is pretentious but is aware it is being so which is really a difficult accomplishment. Most of the comedy is left for the audiences decision their isnt that awkward pause for a punch line or even just having jokes at the end of sentences it is very much up to the audience in a way that most films do not allow and I think this is itself makes LA worth seeing .

Their is a fair amount of credit due to Elizabeth Olsen who i thought did just a fabulous job in this , her character was a real person and I think really held the film together as Radnor's character on the whole was similar to How I Met Your Mother and other TV characters, believable to a point and beyond that they are purely TV characters , which is fine normally but when surrounded by better actors it becomes increasing noticeable.

The real credit lies with the supporting cast in this film however , these were where the wonderful and a round of applause (and believe I'm surprised to say it too) to Zac Efron who had the funniest and most surreal and bizarre character. Also the characters of The school professor ( Richard Jenkins ) and the troubled college kid (relative newcomer John Magaro) I was particularly impressed with Marago and probably would have improved this film with more of him in it as he is just very believable and relatable , i'd say watch out for him.

The most noticeable fault I would have to say with the film was in scripting (sorry Radnor but when you do all 3 your bound to fall down) I found the two main characters Radnor was so determined to make them three dimensional that he would invent traits and quirks and then they would be ignored and new ones created which was just to cut and chopped and made the flatness of the character very high lighted and the flip side the supporting character were given this one trait and was never altered or expanded making them somewhat flat though

Final Word:

This isnt as artsy and out their as the film is trying to claim but it is a funny , charming film and handles what is a potentially a creepy awkward problem really well and if you don't hope for deeper look into the film then it really is worth a viewing 

6.5/10

This Must Be The Place - Review

Black comedies always walk a very fine line but when its done well they can be fabulous so I was really curious to see this very promising dark comedy … Unfortunately it didnt even truely show that in the end .The film has such a major change im going to divide it into the comedy first half and the overly profound 2nd half

for the first half with an interesting and sweet relationship between our main character and his enthusiastic wife was really well done and fun to watch it develop as you begin to understand themthis and the minor characters he surrounds himself with such as the business woman no nonsense mother, the confused gothic teenager and the lude builder friend make for an interesting mixture .It wasn’t looking like an amazing genre defining idea but still funny and somewhat memorable and had the film just brought the characters to life more it would have been really fun and interesting .

However as soon as we leave Dublin it goes down hill in the 2nd half and leads to a wondering ill defined idea where in he takes a road trip while looking for daddies love and a nazi Auschwitz and he is also taking this guys car to his wife ?? It loses the easy comedy which was carried through the first half and instead feel painful as it tries to replicate the easy introduction of characters carried in the first half 

The shooting in the first half was some of the best as their was a comedy in what wasnt said which i really enjoyed and thought was clever but again it just went astray in the second half 

While I can understand the ideas projected behind it of all people wondering and I see what they were trying to do i think the film was confused as to its own direction which didnt look intentional but more as though it was imploding the longer the film went on .

Final Word :

 Theirs always room with movies like these for people to find them works of art and the undiscovered genius but with this film i feel the scope for that is limited .The moments of subtle still comedy as well as the one liners are worth a look but honestly if you see the trailer you get most of them . 

4/10  

The Forgiveness of Blood - Review

Odd slightly vague trailer and beautiful icon shots .. its like the film was made for me 

The story is based in a small country village in Albania and follows a family who is bound by the tradition of isolation,which is the idea of when one family has wronged another (such a murdering or attacking the family) the belief is an eye for an eye so the family is with their rights to kill the family who has hurt them and until this revenge occurs or another is agreed apon the male members of the family must stay in total isolation in their house on pain of death. Its an interesting idea which is examined throughout the entire film of that beloved (if overused) idea between tradition and life , youth and age . 

Within TFoB we mainly follow the male heir,Nik, who is bound to the house through his fathers actions and his sister who is forced to take the work of her father and brother . The lead actor and actress are to be credited in their work with both giving consistent if not especially lively performances , both characters but notably  Tristan Halilaj are being so emphasized to be average people trapped in this situation , he is appropriately frustrated and appropriately sad and appropriately rebellious that he begins to lose the sense of reality , the characters lacks for quirks so much that he becomes 2D .. admittedly an accomplishment for a live film .

In terms of cinematography the shooting is beautiful with a lovely muted film which dosn't over power the film in any way.However and it is going to sound like I'm nitpicking but their are so many beautiful shots where its clear the director wasn't willing to let them go and it actually did make the film feel as though it was dragging with all these beautiful pensive shots of our lead characters.That said some of the most iconic shots I've seen since The Tree of Life.

Final Word :
This film has an interesting idea which it does explore and the sister becoming bread winner (while not fully explored ) helps the film carry of the idea of it being a study of people, their are better ones out their but their are also much worse and if nothing else it captures reality very well

5.5/10