Films 2009
I don't visit the pictures often enough to make efforts at proper reviews, but I've decided to gather all the films I've seen this year into a single post and write my (very brief) thoughts on each. No spoilers as such, and I'll keep updating this as I go along. (So she says.)
RATINGS:
* - What the seventh circle of Hell is reserved for.
** - Watchable, boring, mediocre.
*** - I liked this but wouldn't buy it.
**** - This was really good and I might buy it.
***** - Star Trek Really really good, I'm on tenterhooks waiting for this to come out on DVD.
500 DAYS OF SUMMER ***
Not the life-changing experience that my work colleague promised, but then he's projecting onto the protagonist. A nice little film that I would hesitate to call a rom-com, as it is not a love story. Funny and bittersweet, the leads bond over the song There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, which is a selling point in and of itself. Well worth watching, and a good effort from a genre I usually eschew.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS ****
Surprisingly good! I went in with few expectations and ended up really liking this. The animation was beautiful, the characters were excellent, and I was near-weeping with laughter at the snowball fight scene. A lovely, cheerful, uplifting little film with lots of ridiculous enjoyable food-puns, this is the best animation I've seen since Wall-E.
CORALINE **
Beautifully animated but that's all I can say about this film. Otherwise, it was forgettable, and trying too hard to be "kookie." (A word I despise, yet I imagine was written all over the preliminary script.)
DISTRICT 9 ****.5
An excellent film marred only by its portrayal of Nigerians, which I found uncomfortable. Otherwise, very very good and curiously realistic: perhaps this really is how we would respond in the face of 'invasion.' Lots of aspects I liked about this film: humans not being totally useless in the face of alien power, interesting characters up to and including the non-humans, and the setting for once not a big American city but Johannesburg, making for a far more interesting and haha 'alien' landscape than this Brit is used to.
DORIAN GRAY **
I liked this well enough but it was forgettable. Too many sex scenes and the on-camera evolution of the picture made this faintly ridiculous. A shame because with a defter hand and more restraint this could have been a good little horror. Firth was enjoyable, though.
FANTASTIC MR. FOX ****
The trailer of this was abysmal and made it look like a wildlife-inspired Ocean's Eleven, so I was determined not to see it until I was persuaded. And what a surprising little film! Nothing like the book but extremely enjoyable. I'd hesitate to call this a kid's film, too much of the humour would go over their heads. Funny, strange, and I loved the bizarre and unique animation.
HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE ****
My favourite of the franchise so far and sod what everyone else is saying. Astonishing cinematography and funny, it captured the essence of Harry Potter far better than a lot of the films have done in spite of its ignorance of some canon. Moreover, unlike any of the other films it made me rethink book canon - namely, in its detailing of the Vanishing Cabinet scenes. I had never before appreciated the effort it must have taken Draco to perform this, and it made the character more interesting and powerful to me. Thanks, movie!
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS ***.5
Not Tarantino's best (that prize still goes to Reservoir Dogs) but I liked this a great deal, and it has who is perhaps my favourite original character of 2009 so far - Colonel Hans Landa. A surprisingly fun movie in spite of the fact that it has the director's usual carelessness with the mortality of his characters, with some genuinely hair-raising moments. That opening scene!
MOON **.5
I liked this largely for the Red Dwarf-esque sets/character dynamics and the feeling of nostalgia that accompanied it. Some good moments, but I couldn't help but feel that it was a little too quiet.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE ***
Deserves three stars for the train sequence alone. A curious little movie that doesn't seem to slot into any particular genre, it has that sense of place I love so much in my fiction. Uplifting without ever being cloying or sentimental; in fact, very hard-hitting in places. Great use of camera and music, always a plus.
STAR TREK *****
I shamelessly love this movie. Taking well-established characters, it seems a return to those movies you watched as a child - Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Jurassic Park - that were shamelessly fun and utterly awesome. Watching this in the cinema I felt like a six-year-old again, eyes like saucers, ridiculous smile. This is what going to the pictures is about!
UP ***.5
Lovely, feel-good and not at all patronising to kids which I like. Probably not something I'd buy but this film made me smile, and some beautiful bits of animation that took my breath away. Also, dogs.
WATCHMEN *
Utter horseshit. I spent £6 and three hours of my life watching this film, and all I got back was the cinema seat embedded into my coccyx and an overwhelming urge to visit the houses of all the people that recommended it to me and shit in their fucking beds. A nasty, boring little film and proof that there is no accounting for taste, or for other people.
RATINGS:
* - What the seventh circle of Hell is reserved for.
** - Watchable, boring, mediocre.
*** - I liked this but wouldn't buy it.
**** - This was really good and I might buy it.
***** - Star Trek Really really good, I'm on tenterhooks waiting for this to come out on DVD.
500 DAYS OF SUMMER ***
Not the life-changing experience that my work colleague promised, but then he's projecting onto the protagonist. A nice little film that I would hesitate to call a rom-com, as it is not a love story. Funny and bittersweet, the leads bond over the song There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, which is a selling point in and of itself. Well worth watching, and a good effort from a genre I usually eschew.
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS ****
Surprisingly good! I went in with few expectations and ended up really liking this. The animation was beautiful, the characters were excellent, and I was near-weeping with laughter at the snowball fight scene. A lovely, cheerful, uplifting little film with lots of ridiculous enjoyable food-puns, this is the best animation I've seen since Wall-E.
CORALINE **
Beautifully animated but that's all I can say about this film. Otherwise, it was forgettable, and trying too hard to be "kookie." (A word I despise, yet I imagine was written all over the preliminary script.)
DISTRICT 9 ****.5
An excellent film marred only by its portrayal of Nigerians, which I found uncomfortable. Otherwise, very very good and curiously realistic: perhaps this really is how we would respond in the face of 'invasion.' Lots of aspects I liked about this film: humans not being totally useless in the face of alien power, interesting characters up to and including the non-humans, and the setting for once not a big American city but Johannesburg, making for a far more interesting and haha 'alien' landscape than this Brit is used to.
DORIAN GRAY **
I liked this well enough but it was forgettable. Too many sex scenes and the on-camera evolution of the picture made this faintly ridiculous. A shame because with a defter hand and more restraint this could have been a good little horror. Firth was enjoyable, though.
FANTASTIC MR. FOX ****
The trailer of this was abysmal and made it look like a wildlife-inspired Ocean's Eleven, so I was determined not to see it until I was persuaded. And what a surprising little film! Nothing like the book but extremely enjoyable. I'd hesitate to call this a kid's film, too much of the humour would go over their heads. Funny, strange, and I loved the bizarre and unique animation.
HARRY POTTER & THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE ****
My favourite of the franchise so far and sod what everyone else is saying. Astonishing cinematography and funny, it captured the essence of Harry Potter far better than a lot of the films have done in spite of its ignorance of some canon. Moreover, unlike any of the other films it made me rethink book canon - namely, in its detailing of the Vanishing Cabinet scenes. I had never before appreciated the effort it must have taken Draco to perform this, and it made the character more interesting and powerful to me. Thanks, movie!
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS ***.5
Not Tarantino's best (that prize still goes to Reservoir Dogs) but I liked this a great deal, and it has who is perhaps my favourite original character of 2009 so far - Colonel Hans Landa. A surprisingly fun movie in spite of the fact that it has the director's usual carelessness with the mortality of his characters, with some genuinely hair-raising moments. That opening scene!
MOON **.5
I liked this largely for the Red Dwarf-esque sets/character dynamics and the feeling of nostalgia that accompanied it. Some good moments, but I couldn't help but feel that it was a little too quiet.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE ***
Deserves three stars for the train sequence alone. A curious little movie that doesn't seem to slot into any particular genre, it has that sense of place I love so much in my fiction. Uplifting without ever being cloying or sentimental; in fact, very hard-hitting in places. Great use of camera and music, always a plus.
STAR TREK *****
I shamelessly love this movie. Taking well-established characters, it seems a return to those movies you watched as a child - Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Jurassic Park - that were shamelessly fun and utterly awesome. Watching this in the cinema I felt like a six-year-old again, eyes like saucers, ridiculous smile. This is what going to the pictures is about!
UP ***.5
Lovely, feel-good and not at all patronising to kids which I like. Probably not something I'd buy but this film made me smile, and some beautiful bits of animation that took my breath away. Also, dogs.
WATCHMEN *
Utter horseshit. I spent £6 and three hours of my life watching this film, and all I got back was the cinema seat embedded into my coccyx and an overwhelming urge to visit the houses of all the people that recommended it to me and shit in their fucking beds. A nasty, boring little film and proof that there is no accounting for taste, or for other people.