This is an entertaining film that plays as a homage to the monster movies we all know and love. I say homage, because although from the trailers and posters it looks like a spoof, it doesn't have the same sort of humour as real spoofs, where scenes from the classics are just blatantly ridiculed. In this, all of the scenes you expect to see in a cheesy monster film are here, but instead of taking the mick out of them, it just bases its own witicisms around the scenes. I think this is the reason it didn't go down very well in America, because they didn't latch on to its style. Anyway, Lake Placid is an amusing film with some great special effects and even some quite tense moments. Plenty of gore added to that make this a great night out (well, in I suppose). That aside, the love scenes with Bill Paxton and Bridget Fonda are maybe a little too bad to be funny, and it isn't as good a homage/parody as something like Sleepy Hollow, so I'll give it..... 6/10
(From Insomniac Mania)
The Last Samurai is an action-packed grand war film reminiscent of an oriental Braveheart, but with some fairly accurate depictions of the Samurai way of life added as a bonus. Its mostly brawn rather than brains though, and the action scenes are terrifically handled as well as fairly brutal. Samurai film purists may look down upon some of the extended sword-fights when compared to the more tense one or two move showdowns of the traditional films, and the Samurai code isn't examined as deeply as in some of the old classics either. However, this is surprisingly respectful of the traditions and beliefs of the culture, and the 'bad guys' of the film are actually the American arms dealers and the Westernised Japanese. This gives a surprising change from the patriotic propaganda that is usually released nowadays. Away from the content of the film, the performances are strong, with Tom Cruise creating a believable and well developed lead character and Ken Watanabe pulling off a commanding performance as a samurai warlord. Its also nicely shot, especially in the forementioned battlescenes. Its very well paced too, with few lulls in its meaty running time. The end feels as though it may have been changed for Mr. Cruise's benefit, but it still works and stays fairly powerful, albeit not-entirely unpredictable. Overall this is a solidly entertaining war film with a suprising (but not huge) amount of substance in between the hacking and slashing. 8/10
Legally Blonde follows almost every teen 'makeover' (not in the beauty sense here) film cliche in the book, but manages to just about come out okay. This is mainly due to Reese Witherspoon's spirited performance in the lead role. You know exactly what's going to happen almost as soon as it starts, but this doesn't stop you enjoying yourself. That said, there are a couple of 'seen it all before' moments that annoy, some characters are irritatingly stereotyped, and the dialogue isn't all that fresh either. Come to think of it, Reese Witherspoon was probably the only genuinely good thing going for this film. If you want a light, feelgood evening at the cinema that will leave you feeling 'nice' this is for you then, but for those cynics and hardened critics out there, you probably shouldn't bother. 5/10
Wow, I've never been so excited for years before going to see a film (bar maybe Episode One), but luckily I've also never been so excited leaving a cinema for years (including Episode One). This made me feel like a kid again, I walked out with a huge grin on my face, desparate for the next episode. It's not without problems, the bit near the beginning in Hobbiton isn't fantastic, a couple of plot points are a bit too brief (but they'll probably be addressed in the next film to be fair), and the climactic battle isn't quite climactic enough (only because I felt that the action scene preceding it was even better). However, I enjoyed myself so much, and talked about the film for so long afterwards I simply didn't care or even want to analyse it too deeply. The three hour running time is easy going too, I could have sat through another three afterwards. The performances are solid, some very good (Ian McEllen and Viggo Mortenson especially). It's also great to see such a traditional piece of storytelling free of irony, bland characters that you don't care about, and a throwaway plot that you don't even notice. Peter Jackson has done great, he handles everything beautifully and although he adds a lot of visual relish with his swooping camera movements, he never overdoes it or lets it get in the way of proceedings. This truly is a wonderful, wonderful film that has to be seen on cinema as often as possible - it won't be the same on video - this sort of film is what the silver screen was made for. 10/10
The second installment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is a worthy successor to Fellowship, boasting an outstanding climax with the battle of Helmsdeep (sp?). Although I don't think this is quite as good as the last film, it still has everything I loved about it - a beautifully realised fantasy world, plenty of action and an involving storyline. The only elements I thought were weaker was the fact that it didn't flow quite as nicely as the first, and felt a little longer - I think it took a little while to get going, and it lacked some of the really dark and scary elements of the predecessor too - the Dark Riders and Christopher Lee for example weren't given as much screen time as before. The build up to the climax worked very well though, and one of the most impressive elements was Gollum, who was astoundingly well created using computer graphics and the great vocal performance he was given. Viggo Mortenson was the strongest 'real' character here, I felt Gandalf was unfortunately underused though. The rest of the cast were all satisfactory too. Overall, if you loved the first film, you should love this. I'm not sure if it quite reaches the heights of Fellowship but its pretty close. Perhaps after watching it one or two more times it will. 9/10
Finishing off what must be one of cinema's most extraordinary achievements, Return of the King ends the epic trilogy in a suitably grand fashion. Whereas the Two Towers was mostly build-up, this is more like a 3 1/2 hour climax, as a large proportion of the film consists of an epic battle as mankind makes its final bid against the forces of evil. This is quite possibly the most action packed film of its length that I've ever seen and the hours fly by as all hell spectacularly breaks loose around you. The other driving force of the film though is Frodo, Sam and Gollum's final stages of their journey to Mordor. Not having read all of the books, I was gripped by what would happen to them as the Eye of Sauron grew closer and as Gollum started to turn Frodo against Sam. This makes up the real core of the film, as some of the other characters take a back seat for the final installment. Ghimli and Legolas especially have become minor characters, but surpisingly, the other two hobbits Merry and Pippin are given room to develop here and become more than the comedy side-kicks they started off as. In ending the trilogy, as I mentioned at the start, this film really makes you realise how great an undertaking and how surprisingly successful (technically, not just commercially) the whole thing has been. Peter Jackson and crew deserve every penny of gross the films have made, and as many oscars as the accademy can possibly lavish upon them. OK, so the film's coda (the bit after the finale) drags on a little and there are one or two slightly cheesy moments, but the film and trilogy as a whole is such a magnificent achievement that picking faults feels frivolous. Film:9/10 Trilogy:10/10
Lost in La Mancha is a documentary charting the making and subsequent colapse of Terry Gilliam's ill-fated project, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. This is heart-breaking stuff as we see Gilliam's enthusiasm deteriorate as everything crumbles before him. Moments such as when a monsoon washes away all of their equipment bring a lump to your throat, and as much as you hope everything will get better, you know it won't. It also makes you realise just how cutthroat the business end of things can be. It's a nicely made documentary following everything cronologically in a narrative structure, which just makes it all the more painful as you see pretty much exactly how it all went wrong as they saw it. The filmmakers intersperse the on-set/location and office footage with some Gilliam-a-like animated sequences too which, alongside some very likeable cast and crew members keep this from being plain depressing. Overall this is excellent stuff, and if you've ever tried to make a film before in your life, the story will be ever more agonising. 9/10
Coming to British shores on a wave of critical hype and awards, Lost in Translation was a bit of a dissapointment when I finally got to see it. Don't get me wrong, its a finely acted and well shot piece which is quite touching and funny, but I couldn't help feeling underwhelmed by it all. Its a very slight film where little happens, which isn't always a problem for me, but it just creates a feeling of emptiness here. Perhaps thats the point, as a main theme of the film is about feeling lost and insignificant in such a big, crowded place, but it just caused me to leave the film feeling, well, not much really. I am being a bit harsh though, even though it was dissapointing, I still thought it was a good film. It has a beautiful dreamy atmosphere in a similar way to Sofia Coppola's first film, The Virgin Suicides. And as I mentioned earlier the acting is excellent, especially Bill Muray's subtle, but warm portrayal of a movie star spending his twilight years doing Japanese commercials. His relationship to Scarlett Johansson's character is well played out, although I didn't feel it was as painfully touching as the central relationships in the similar In the Mood For Love or Brief Encounter. With this and her previous film, Sofia Coppola is shaping up to be a fine filmmaker, but her films to me are just lacking that extra 'umph' to be truly memorable. 7/10
Love Actually takes the multiple interweaving storyline structure of more 'serious' films like Short Cuts, Amores Peros and Magnolia, and applies them to the romantic comedy formula to create a fairly successful spin on the tired genre. This technique doesn't really create the 'ultimate romantic comedy' the publicity suggests though, instead it just means you get more happy (and unhappy) endings for your money and on their own the individual storylines become quite flimsy. One or two of the strands are quite good though, due mainly to some decent performances from the fine cast. Bill Nighy in particular is very entertaining and the ever reliable Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson team up for one of the films few downbeat sections. Two of the stories, one featuring a horny loser who travels to America and another featuring two porn stand-ins who fall for each-other, feel totally unnecessary though and both are merely built around a single gag. Its easy to be cynical about a film like this though and to be fair, I did enjoy the film, but in writing this review a couple of weeks after seeing it, I've realised how forgetable it was. If you're in the mood for a bit of fluff that'll warm your cockles this winter then this will do the job, but for those of you out for some quality filmmaking, don't bother, but I'm sure you all knew that anyway. 6/10
