Movie stuff

Lots on the go. What I thought would be a quiet week turned out to be very busy. Haven't had time to post anything of substance, but here's a bit of fluff for you in the form of two movie reviews and some cinematic thoughts ;-)

X Men: First Class


I'm not generally a fan of movies based on comic books. They tend to have lame plots, stilted scripts and simplistic characters. But the X Men movies have always been different. Yes, they are silly. But they are generally wellmade. The only exception for me so far has been Wolverine, which I hated.

X Men First Class is slick, fast-paced, filled with spectacular special effects and actually contains some pretty decent acting. It's fun to watch and is perfect Hollywood entertainment that doesn't require too much thinking. Of course it's not perfect - there are some daft lines, some OTT moments and the story loses momentum in parts. But it's honestly not too bad, which surprised me, especially when I saw that the character of Professor X was being played by the sweet but in my mind sappy James McAvoy. He actually did lend a touch of humanity and humour to the character. Michael Fassbender was perfectly cast as Erik / Magneto.

All in all, a not too shabby 7 / 10 from me.

Jane Eyre



I loved the book. I'm a big fan of the classics. But as long as the basic story and "feel" of the book is translated into film, I don't mind some smart editing that may cut out a few bits here and there. And that's exactly what this film did.

Instead of plodding along, following the exact path of the book, director Cary Fukunaga played a bit on the sequencing of events and cut out some details that, although charming in the book, were not essential to the plot.

Imagine my surprise though, having been suitably charmed by Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre, when Michael Fassbender showed up as Mr Rochester. Two movies with this man in one week and really - he is the only thing that X Men: First Class and Jane Eyre have in common. But more on him later...

Jane Eyre was one of my favourite movies of the year so far. The acting was incredible. How to play Mr Rochester so that he is rude, abrupt and awful yet still someone that one wants to fall in love with is always a challenge, as is the character of Jane Eyre herself - how to convet her spirit without imposing our modern feminism on that time period?

Both situations were navigated exceptionally well. The drama was intense; the landscape ideal. The chemistry between Jane and Edward is beautifully conveyed.

Once again - it's not perfect. But to me (and maybe it's because I love the book so much that I tend to be quite generous to any recreation of it), it scored 9 / 10.

On movie-going and then Michael Fassbender:

If you've read this blog for any great length of time you'll know that I LOVE CINEMA. I studied film at varsity and everything about it (aside from the celeb stalking) fascinates me. There is so much that goes into making the final two-hour movie that we watch. Everything on that film is included for a reason. Lighting, props, camera angles... they all contribute to the mood and our understanding of a film.

Needless to say, I enjoy watching a movie at the cinema. I also enjoy watching films at home, cuddled up on the couch, but for me a trip to the movies is a favourite outing. TSC and I probably watch a movie in the cinema every two weeks. I love everything from getting dressed up to go out to getting my popcorn and slushy (my movie ritual), watching the previews to plan the next films I'm going to watch and then the actual cinematic immersion experience of the big screen, surround sound and the group reactions itself.

Now here comes a rant...

I'm really tired of having my happy bubble of cinematic pleasure burst. Sterkinekor's latest catchphrase is "Your happy place". For me it couldn't be more apt. But the Sterkinkor movie theatres near me are definitely NOT my happy place. At Fourways Mall, we've had shockingly warped sound at two movies (so every bit of background music sounds like Dory speaking whale in Finding Nemo) and the most disgustingly stale popcorn I've ever tasted in my life the last time we were there. And fighting with management hasn't got me anywhere.

So we moved on to try Cedar Square. And the whole way through Jane Eyre, there was a bright green vertical stripe of light down the right side of the screen. It's very hard to concentrate on the scene with a big fat stripe down the actor's face!

Anyhoo... onwards to my comments about Michael Fassbender.

Seeing him in X Men: First Class, I was instantly struck by how much he reminds me of my brother. They have the same high cheekbones, long nose, dark hair, bright blue eyes and a sort of "hardness" about them. TSC and I chatted about it afterwards and I said how weird the resemblance is.

Then, just a few days later, we saw him again in Jane Eyre. He's a very versatile actor. But the trouble is that he's also playing the lead romantic role in Jane Eyre and he is a rather attractive man. So I found myself empathising with Jane, admiring Fassner as Rochester and feeling my heart melt, and then stopping suddenly with that "eeuw" feeling when he did something or said something that made him look exactly like the older version of my brother.

It was very disconcerting.

And, as Jeremy Clarkson would say. On that bombshell, it's time to say goodbye!

Have a great weekend, computer people.

My opinion on various things. And pics.

As I'm sure you are all aware, I have an opinion on pretty much everything :-) So here are my thoughts on a couple of things:

Movies:

Unkown: I love Liam Neeson. I love action movies and thrillers. One would think this was a match made in heaven. And it was definitely edge-of-your-seat engaging. The only problems are the plot holes the size of JuJu's ego and the fact that it's all been done before. And let's face it, Bourne Identity did it a little better. I give it 6 out of 10.

Thor: Expecting a credible storyline and a superb script from a comic book movie is a bit like expecting a politician to tell the truth - it's possible, but quite rare. That said, if you can ignore the really daft plot, cheesy lines and superficial characters, Thor is actually quite a lot of fun. The special FX are pretty impressive, there's loads of action and, of course, there are Chris Hemsworth's abs. I give this one 6 out of 10 too.

TV:

Masterchef Australia: I don't know why I watch this show. I find it so stressful that I spend most of it clenching my fists and chanting contestants' names over and over as if I can stop them from being eliminated. But I love it. I really do. For the first time in ages, TSC and I are following something (other than sport) regularly on TV. Of course, it helps that we have a PVR now :-)

Restaurants:

La Passant: I bought a voucher for La Passant in Sandton awhile ago from awesome group buying site, WiCount (http://www.wicount.co.za/), and WOW - what a find! TSC and I had such a lovely dinner there. He had the lamb shank in red wine, cranberry and chocolate sauce (yum!) and I had the duck breast with orange and mango sauce (also yum!). We finished off with a rooibos creme brulee and the beligian chocolate mousse - both were little pieces of heaven on a plate. And the service was fabulous. We'll definitely be visiting again.

So those are my opinions for today. And here are some more pics from Sondela...

TSC feeding Porky, the tame warthog who was taken in by the Wildlife Centre when he was abandoned by his mother...

Sweet ass :-)

Yummy cheese platter that was brought to our room as part of our package on our first night...

Three giraffes. We saw them from a distance when we were out cycling, so we headed closer, got off the bikes and walked near enough to take pics - amazing experience...

Movies galore

Today I remembered the camera. And forgot the cable to link it to the PC. Chop.

So more written nonsense for you lot. A brief collective movie review, if one could call it that, of the movies I've seen in the last while. Would love your thoughts on them too.

Surrogates

This was not a bad movie. It wasn't great, but it was enjoyable enough. We saw it because TSC and I both adore Bruce Willis (Not sure why, admittedly). The concept of the film is that in the future world, people have bought perfect surrogate bodies that they control from their homes. While the surrogates go to work, party hard and do anything else their owners imagine, the real people hide at home behind closed doors, chubbier, more wrinkled and generally less attractive than their airbrushed "surries". Then a murder takes place and a person is killed through his surrogate. This changes everything. And, of course, Bruce is required to save the day.

It's an interesting idea, although difficult to translate into a mere two-hour film. The don't-be-too-dependent-on-tech moral is very clear, but the gaps in the created world and the storyline are annoying. It's entertaining, but not as memorable as it should be.

500 Days of Summer

The tagline, "This is not a love story. this is a story about love," says it all. The film follows Tom, a greeting card writer, and his feelings for Summer, the girl he believes is "the one". An offbeat, sweet indie film, the movie portrays Tom's journey in a non-linear but entertaining manner. Great music, laugh-out-loud funny moments, heart-breaking emotional scenes and a gorgeous scene straight out of a Broadway musical made me love this movie.

Sherlock Holmes

We saw the premier of this movie at Montecasino. Blergh. What a load of hype for nothing. For a film by Guy Ritchie, the director of my favourite movie, Snatch, as well as Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (we will ignore the fact that he also directed Swept Away starring his looney ex-wife, Madonna), it was a disappointment. I also adore Robert Downey Jnr, but found that he mumbled his way through Sherlock's lines so that for half of the movie, none of us could understand what on earth he was saying. It felt like the movie went on forever. And I'm sure there will be a sequel. Which I will not be watching.

Avatar

Let me say upfront that this movie is not about the plot. You know within the first few minutes of the three-hour epic exactly what will happen. But that's not the point. The glory of this movie is the rich new world that has been created - Pandora. I could cast aside cliched script and ignore Sam Worthington dropping his American accent (he's an Aussie) so long as I could gaze on the phosphorescent plantlife and be transported into the world of those tall blue humanoids for a bit longer. Technologically, this movie has given us a leap in film-making technique that we last saw with The Matrix. Despite a predictable storyline and stock characters, this film does what sci-fi is meant to do - transports us into a new world.

The Visitor

We saw this last night. It was really good. And then it ended. Abruptly. In the middle of the most important bit, I think. But maybe that was the point. *sigh* Let me backtrack. It's about this man, a widower and lecturer, who arrives in Manhattan for a conference to find two immigrants, Tarek and Zainab, living in his apartment. They have been leased the place in real estate scam. He reluctantly allows them to stay as they have nowhere else to go, and then becomes involved in their lives and ultimately Tarek's struggle to avoid deportation.

Despite my annoyance at the ending, I would recommend seeing it, even just so that I have someone to discuss it with ;-)

Those of the films I have seen on cimema recently. Any other recommendations (and don't tell me Couples Retreat).

Me on movies again

TSC and I have been spending the cold evenings (what is up with this freak cold front?) watching DVDs in bed while I make jewellery stock for my Christmas open house event. This means that we occasionally find beads or crimps in the bed (not fun), but at least I've been able to enjoy some onscreen entertainment and stay warm while I work ;-)

On Tuesday night we finally got around to watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I'd been putting off seeing the film because it looked long and boring. It certainly didn't disappoint on those scores. Long and boring indeed. Yes, the make-up was impressive, but good grief - how many times did they have to explain that this dude was ageing backwards? We got it the first time! Also the ongoing spats between Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and the frequent returns to reality in the hospital room, for no apparent reason. Blegh. I'd give it six out of 10. Maybe. What would you say?

On Monday, we saw Fireproof. It's a Christian movie, and normally I find them quite over the top and not very well made, but this one was surprising in some ways. It had hilarious moments that had us in stitches, and then it had real tear-jerker scenes too. It's about a married couple on the brink of divorce who are just living past each other. He's a fireman who values honour and respect in the workplace, but treats his wife without either at home. She's a PR officer for a hospital and is most concerned with helping her mom, who recently suffered a stroke, and her crush on one of the doctors she works with. The beginning of the film is pathetic and annoying, but for me it seemed to get better as it went on. Maybe it's because marriage is a subject close to my heart, or maybe it's because I am a Christian and don't find the very strong conversion message offensive, as some might. Whatever the case, I quite liked this film, but would be interested to hear what non-Christians think of it.

At sometime or another, we also saw Shark Tale again. I am a sucker for animated movies, and although this one is not on the same level of awesomeness as Kungfu Panda or Shrek, I still enjoyed it. Although I must say that Renee Zellweger remains as irritating as an animated fish as she is as a human actress, while I generally prefer Jack Black as an animation.

I think what I enjoyed most about this film was the attention to detail. In the underwater fish city where most of the action takes place, you'll notice billboards for Coral Cola, Old Wavy and GUP (instead of GAP). As with most DreamWorks animations, my favourite bit of renting the DVD is to watch the special features and learn how the thing got put together. It's always amazing for me to see how the filmmakers had to find ways to do things that we take for granted as we watch the movie - like creating a way of making the Rasta jellyfish twins seem transparent, or how to make the fish seem iridescent like they would IRL, or how soap suds would behave underwater.

I think one of my dreams is to spend some time in a DreamWorks studio to see a film like this taking shape.

Sadly, there seems to be nothing on circuit worth seeing at the local cinema at the moment (Except Julie and Julia - I'm quite keen to see that). And TSC and I have seen practically everything at the video store (apart from all the series - he doesn't like watching series, unfortunately for me). Seeing the weather is still miz and I have lots more jewellery to make before 5 Dec, any movie suggestions for us?

Me on movies

Just realised my driver's licence expires in a few weeks time. Bah! Anyone know an easy way to get it renewed that doesn't involve paying bribes or standing in queues for six years?

I feel like watching movies today. Seeing I have to be at the office instead, I'll just blog about them...



Saw District 9 last night. I must disagree with Ches, who hated the movie (although he does make some valid points). Maybe it was because I wasn't expecting much, but I thought it was pretty damn good. Generally, when people rave about a movie I end up hating it and there was quite a bit of hype around this flick so I figured it would disappoint. But it didn't.


I think it's a great movie. But that doesn't mean I enjoyed it. Let me clarify... there are movies that you can admit are totally brilliant without finding great pleasure in watching them. The same goes for books. Like JM Coetzee's Disgrace. I don't deny it was clever, well-written and worth studying for high school English. Doesn't mean I liked it though.


District 9 was, IMHO, well filmed with good actors, nice fast-moving action scenes and effective special effects. Yes, there were a few cliches and some bits that could easily have been left out (the last sequence seemed a bit protracted to me), but overall, it was well directed and edited. What surprised me though, was how much I was moved by the film.


I left the Il Grande cinema in a sober, pensive mood. I knew District 9 would touch on issues of xenophobia, but it really, really got to me. It was so gritty and dirty and South African and... real. It wasn't an idyllic, romanticised, pretty picture. I liked that about it.


The only thing I truly didn't like (aside from the fact that the main character only seems to know one expletive, which he uses about six times in every sentence) is the portrayal of Nigerians in the movie - they are shown as being completely devoid of human empathy and moral standards. They have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.


If I were Nigerian, that would piss me off no end.


But all in all, a good film in my opinion. What are your thoughts?





TSC and I also watched Coraline on DVD the other day. Let me start by saying that I am absolutely fascinated by stop-motion animation. I think my dream job would be to build sets and props for a film like this. The puppets, sets and art direction are amazing!


Ok, maybe the storyline was a little... odd, but even if I didn't find the plot particularly gripping, I was impressed by the colours, characters and even texture of the film (does that make sense?).

I know this movie was released in 3D, but I'm glad we saw it on DVD so we had access to the special features showing the making of the film. Like Transformers or Nightmare Before Christmas, this is a movie I believe you can appreciate more once you know what the production entails.


Basically, there are 24 frames per second of film. In stop-motion, you have to film each frame one at a time, readjusting the puppet and set so that when you string all the frames together and speed them up, it flows like a normal movie. It can take an animator days or even weeks to film a few seconds.


It is enormously labour-intensive to shoot stop-motion and Coraline was no exception, with around 450 people working on almost 150 sets with characters no taller than a nice new pencil. The clothes are hand-stitched, the fires are hand-drawn into scenes after filming and the puppets have over 200 000 facial expressions that need to be hand-created by the animators and designers. The work is phenomenal!


If you want a feel-good, easy-to-watch animated story with a nice storyline, rent out Finding Nemo. If you want to watch a beautifully-designed stop-motion work of art, plus all the in-depth features, Coraline is worth a look. and if you do watch it / have seen it, please let me know what you thought.

Me on movies

Yesterday we had no phones / internet at work for most of the day. Not Telkom's fault this time. Now that the overdue account has been settled we're back online. Which is great - most of the stuff I do depends on either phone or internet.

I'm using this as a getting-up-to-speed post on a few movies I've seen lately because I can't keep my opinions to myself. Your opinions are also welcome, of course.

Ice Age 3:
I was not expecting much from this movie. The second sequel is usually not worth watching, in my opinion. But I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It's not brilliant, by any means, but it is an enjoyable, silly candy-floss film. And it's nice to see one of those every once in awhile. My only real bone with it is that Diego didn't get as many good lines... he's my favourite :-)

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian:
I didn't choose to see this movie. The first one was more than enough for me. But we have a chap called Vusi staying with us for a few days (helping TSC to paint the house) who has never been to the cinema before, so we took him to Montecasino to see this one. He loved it, and watching him laugh made me laugh too. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Daft, but with a few good laughs. I wouldn't recommend it, but I'm glad Vusi enjoyed it. Afterwards he said, "Everything else seems so small now, after that big screen!"

Seven Pounds:
We took this out on DVD over the weekend because people keep telling me "you HAVE to see it!" I don't know why, actually. It wasn't great. Without spoiling things, as soon as I saw the jellyfish and took notice of the all the sick folks, I guessed the supposed "big twist ending", so there were no surprises for me. When a movie is supposed to be a surprise, not having one kind of makes it pointless. It was just long and sad. So we watched Crocodile Dundee II afterwards and the total eighties corny-ness (yes, it's a word. In my world) of it all banished the misery of Seven Pounds.

What movies have you seen lately that are worth watching?

If we had a South African version of Crocodile Dundee, I'm sure this type of scene would appear in it... (In fact, I think there was something in one of Schuster's flicks)...

A million things on my mind...

...But not many to blog about. I'm busy, busy, busy with freelance stuff at the moment, which is great, if challenging. And seeing I don't have much time, I thought I'd just share my thoughts on two movies I've seen in the past week, and ask for your opinions on them too.

The Changeling

IMO, this is Angelina Jolie at her best. Playing a 1920s mum, she is not her usual slick leather-clad, gorgeous self. As Christine Collins, mother to Walter, she is soft and reserved and definitely lacking in kick-ass in the beginning of the film. When Walter disappears, however, Christine is distraught and moves into action to involve the Los Angeles police in trying to locate her son.

Eventually, they find a child that fits his description and a grand reunion is planned for mother and son. The trouble is, Christine is convinced that the boy is not her Walter. The LAPD are sure he is. So sure, in fact, that they believe Christine has gone mad.

What ensues is a gripping story of murder, mother love, corruption and agony as Christine fights for her son and dares to question the actions of the police - soemthing not generally done, and definitely not approved of by the society of the time.

It's a long movie and it's not a happy, feel-good flick, but the performances from Angelina Jolie, creepy old John Malkovich (actually playing a good guy for a change) and Jeffrey Donovan are excellent. I'm glad I saw it.

Now, to any of you who've seen it... What did you think?

Movie number two...

Slumdog Millionaire

I am always wary of movies that get gazillions of awards. They are often, IMO, daft and pointless. In fact, I reckon that people just vote for them because they think that they look deep and meaningful and that if they vote for them, they'll look smart and like they understand a lot.

Right, vent over.

Slumdog Millionaire, with its oodles of Oscars and bushels of British film awards, was a movie that I reckoned would disappoint me. But I was wrong. I am a sucker for well made feel-good movies and this film captured my heart and melted it into a big pile of mush from the very first minute.

Danny Boyle, who directed the film, has a varied bunch of movies under his belt. From the chilling Shallow Grave (if you haven't seen this and love nail-biting flicks that will haunt you for weeks, see it) to the groundbreaking Trainspotting and the weird (no, make that truly bizarre) Alien Love Triangle, Boyle has bounced all over the show.

Slumdog Millionaire tells the tale of Jamal, an 18-year old boy from the slums of Mumbai who has made it onto the popular TV show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and is one question away from winning 20 million Rupee when he is accused of cheating and arrested. As he is questioned by the police, his life is told in a series of flashbacks and we learn how he knew each of the answers to the questions asked on the show.

I honestly didn't think Dev Patel, who plays Jamal at 18, was great. But the kids who played him during the stages of his younger years (Ayush Mahesh Khedekar especially) and those who played the other main characters Salim and Latika as children made the movie for me.

It's not the greatest movie ever made, but to me it was pretty damn good. Why? The sense of rhythm, the soundtrack, the clever editing and the use of little mise en scene clues (like the fact that Latika always wears yellow in scenes where she and Jamal are happy together) appeal to me. There are moments where you guffaw with laughter and those where I quietly shed a tear, or felt my hand go to my throat in horror.

In short, it moved me. What did it do for you?