Yet More Blooming Film Reviews....

[philosoraptor42]

A Boy And His Dog (1975) 5/5
Classic sci-fi. In a post-apocalyptic world a boy scavenges for food and sex with the help of his telepathic dog Blood.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this, but I was happily surprised. There is one point in the movie where Blood, the telepathic dog who quickly becomes the central source of interest, becomes separated from the protagonist, but fortunately it turns out to be worth it. While I was worried the movie would lose steam, the ending was actually really good.

Away We Go (2009) 1.5/5
I'll start by pointing out that I didn't finish this. I was actually really excited about this since it's made by the awesome Sam Mendes and I have so far loved EVERYTHING he's done. That includes the horribly underrated "Jarhead" and I also enjoyed the opinion-dividing "Revolutionary Road".

The story starts with a couple who are expecting a baby. After announcing this to their most local relatives (the man's parents), it turns out that they have made plans to begin living in Belgium before the baby is born. As such, the parents-to-be decide to go around the country to find a new place to live. At this stage the central couple are seeming rather dull and characterless. The first place they go is to meet some friends who turn out to be awful parents to their own children as well as rather bizarre and bigoted. Instead of recognising their friends are obnoxious, all that seems to come out of this meet-up is that the man in the couple is worried about his wife's breasts becoming smaller after she finishes breast-feeding. Couple this with the running gag that the woman in the couple looks at least two more months pregnant than she actually is and the hormone levels you would normally find in an expectant mother and I was wondering why she wasn't raging like crazy. This is basically my central criticism of the movie. The main couple (who are, let's face it, the protagonists) don't seem to act like real people. They are not endearing and I became increasingly disinterested in them as a result.

When I stopped watching the movie, the female lead was in a shop with a female friend and the two of them get into a bath that is on display so that the friend can pretend to wash her hair. This whole scene appeared to be deadly serious and seemed to be attempting to build up a similar quirk factor as we find in the movie Juno (which I will quickly note now, I also hated. Though I did at least find that one watchable enough to reach the end of it).

Silly, quirky and wholly unengaging, "Away We Go" is utterly dreadful.

Fitzcarraldo (1982) 4.5/5
Werner Herzog does it again. The story of a man's quest to build an opera house in the jungle features a large steam boat. What happens to the large steam boat is best left unknown, but needless to say it is quite spectacular with very little, if anything, in the way of special effects involved. The downside is that the movie has rather a documentary-like feel to it with all characters feeling peripheral to the charismatic lead character played by Klaus Kinski. Also, perhaps less importantly, the movie is very very long.

Kick-Ass (2010) 5/5
Yes, it's as good as everyone says it is. Another awesome movie from the eclectic Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust). Try to avoid watching trailers. I was so annoyed when I realised that I'd seen the opening scene at least three times already during teasers in previous visits to the cinema. Engaging chracters, imaginative ideas, action, humour and a satisfying ending. Great fun! :)

Fish Tank (2009) 3/5
From the director of Red Road. If you didn't like that you are not going to like this. Imagine Red Road if nothing interesting actually happened and you've got a good idea of what to expect from Fish Tank.

The film features a broken impoverished single parent family in a council flat in England. Her mother gets a boyfriend who looks like he might want to help them out of their situation, but it turns out that he is not all he seems. In the context of the movie what happens next is actually pretty predictable and by the end very little has actually happened.

Kudos to the cast who act their parts very well and it must be admitted that every scene feels very real. The problem is that even if this footage was magically obtained from a real family, I wouldn't be terribly interested in watching it. It's not like the movie Julia (starring Tilda Swinton) where things go wrong in quite spectacular ways and we are constantly on the edge of our seat wondering what will happen next. Instead these are ordinary people with fairly typical problems and if we're going to be entertained rather than simply depressed by the movie, we could do with at least one endearing character to make us invest in the action.

As a side-note, while there were complaints about the swearing by Hit-Girl in "Kick-Ass" that is nothing by comparison to the language of the younger sister of the protagonist in "Fish Tank". While the protagonist Mia is supposed to be 15 years old (actual age: 18) I cannot find the age of Rebecca Griffiths who looks to be about 7 or 8 and plays the younger sister Tyler. Tyler uses the C-word more than once and is far more foul-mouthed than the 9 year old (actual age: 13) in "Kick-Ass". She is also shown drinking alcohol and smoking.

Also, for those who watch it, a 16 year old horse is not old.

So yeah, to sum up, this movie was boring and average. Well-acted, well-shot and nothing interesting happens.

Glorious 39 (2009) 2/5

I guess I knew this wasn't going to be great. The reviews for it hadn't been terribly good, but I wasn't convinced that the creator of the excellent TV mini-series "Shooting The Past" would come up with something impressive. In a way, I was right.

The movie is one of a kind we've seen before in movies like "The Hitcher", "Arlington Road" and perhaps the best example is "Breakdown" (starring Kurt Russell). The idea is basically that there is a conspiracy spefically targeted at you, but at the same time actually admitting it to anyone is impossible because they might either be in on it or think you are nuts.

The idea behind the conspiracy is interesting as it is based around pro-appeasement views within the UK prior to the war. The idea that WWI veterans would be so determined never to re-start the horrors they saw in that war that they would do anything they possibly could to keep the peace makes a lot of sense. This becomes very creepy when we remember the ideology of those they were appeasing and the appeal their racist ideas might have had for a supposedly civilised British aristocracy.

The problem is that too much doesn't add up. Why is the one adopted daughter, Anne (randomly referred to as "Glorious"), so central and if the conspiracy is so far-reaching how come she continues to survive? When the story is being told by two men who were very young at the time of the events, how come it is told from Anne's perspective? One of the men was a baby, while the other man was apparently a young child who occasionally turns up mysteriously in the story and acts in a peculiar manner. As such, the whole manner in which the story is told seems wrong and throughout the movie the modern setting which we occasionally visit seems cut off from the thriller set in 1939.

In spite of many genuinely creepy scenes and some wonderful acting, the ending of the movie is a massive let-down leaving everything in a very dissatisfying mess.

The Informant! (2009) 4.5/5
This seems pretty underrated. Randomly shown in a 70s style even though the events happen in this decade. The central character is played brilliantly by Matt Damon. The way events unfold is quite subtle and the audience is kept guessing as to which way things will go next. Very funny and made even crazier by the fact that it's based on real events. Great fun.