Annie Hall

Annie Hall (1977) starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Paul Simon, and Shelley Duvall.

Before...A classic, possibly one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces of the 20th century, so it had a lot to live up to if I am honest. Not watched many Woody Allen movies but I think I should try and watch more...

Romantic adventures of neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer (Allen) and his equally neurotic girlfriend Annie Hall (Keaton). The film traces the course of their relationship from their first meeting, and serves as an insight into Singer's mind.

My wife's view..."I think I would have really liked this film if instead of choosing what kind of dog I would like I had actually paid attention. The bits I saw were quite funny. There is no rating for this one as I focused to much on the dogs...SORRY!!" Note to wife...focus on film and not silly frivolity!

Where to start...I love this film, and not just because I am a sheep who follows what the majority of the world tells me to enjoy. The thing that I love most about this film, much like with Virginia Woolf's books is that Allen decides to use stream of conscience as his key film style. Whether this is what he always uses and it is a common feature in his writing I don't know as this is the only film of Woody Allen that I have seen. I now await the mass of people telling me how shocked they are that I have only seen one Woody Allen film...

Anyway...the film has an excellent plot. The acting, well if you count Allen acting as himself as acting then it's brilliant, but from what I know he plays himself in every single movie. It is his opposite number that makes the film in my view. Keaton is marvellous in her role as Annie Hall, and it was only 20 minutes in that my wife actually realised who she was, and she loves her!!

So all in all this film is brilliant, a true classic. It is one of these films that changed the face of films. Allen is a genius and is able to completely captivate his audience. So because of that welcome to another of my favourite films...

Angela's Ashes

Angela's Ashes (1999) starring Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle, Joe Breen, Ciaran Owens, and Michael Legge.

Before...had heard about it, and had heard many good things about it. Though just before we started my wife did say that it was an extremely depressing film and I should be ready for it...this didn't fill me with confidence...

Based on the best selling autobiography by Irish expat Frank McCourt (Breen, Owens, Legge), Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father (Carlyle) makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the IRA, and when he does find money, he spends the money on drink. His mother (Watson) continues to strive against all this pain and suffering and helps Frank as much as possible.

My wife's views..."Prepare yourself for some gritty reality. Piss on your head, puke on your shoes, and die on the doorstep stuff. Utterly miserable, but pretty beautiful. Kinda of like having a colonic, you really ought to watch it but it's not always pleasant. ★★★★☆"

Where to start...well see above if I am brutally honest, my wife has hit the nail on the head. The acting is gritty and realistic. Frank as he grows up turns from an excellent young actor to a rather cheesy and hammed up actor. In his youngest form (Breen) though Frank is amusing and full of emotional depth, which is very impressive for such a young actor. Carlyle gives his role the right sort of depth you would expect of such a seasoned actor, and Watson as always is fantastic in her role.

The other true star of the film is Ireland itself. Although we do not see the rolling hills of Ireland we are given a real gritty portrayal of what inner city Ireland is like, and it is not a nice one, but that all adds to the atmosphere of the piece.

A beautiful and passionate portrayal of Frank McCourt's book, it is a truly Irish Alan Parker film, the only other one that springs to mind is The Commitments, and this is a very different side of Ireland. Seemingly beautiful but dreadfully sad, be prepared with your tissues and enjoy this film that I am going to give...

★★★★☆

Anchorman

Anchorman (2004) starring Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koechner.

Before...the very first time I watched this I had no expectations from this film because it was a movie that slipped me by. I hadn't even heard of it. Now...seeing for the umpteenth time, it is one of my favourite comedies. It is completely ridiculous and you HAVE to go into this movie knowing that, otherwise you will go into it and not enjoy it. So, I have no doubt I will enjoy this movie as I always have.

Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) is the top-rated anchorman in San Diego in the '70s. The team (Rudd, Carell, and Koechner) behind him back him all the way. When feminism marches into the newsroom in the form of ambitious newswoman Veronica Corningstone (Applegate), Ron is willing to play along at first-as long as Veronica stays in her place, covering cat fashion shows, cooking, and other "female" interests. But when Veronica refuses to settle for being eye candy and steps behind the news desk, it's more than a battle between two perfectly coiffed anchor-persons... it's war.

My wife's views..."Didn't really like Will Ferrell, but I liked his possy. The fight scene was awesome, but the humour was weak, the plot was poor and it isn't one I would like to watch again too soon. Entertaining enough but not the best. I think it would be more fun to be in the film than watching it. ★★★☆☆ [BUT only because of the fight scene otherwise it would be ★★☆☆☆]"

Where to start...at times this film fumbles over it's focus and plot. It seems instead happy to hop from one joke to another, much like another Airplane movie. It almost feels that the cast never actually got a script and instead were free styling it for the whole 94 minutes. At times this comes acropper, but at other times it works like a dream. The stumbly fumbly nature of the plot mirrors the character of Ron Burgundy, scatty and disordered. The lack of focus works in this case, it is very strange, it just gels and works as a film, which is rare.

The acting in this is great, each of the actors plays their roles to perfection, the particular stand out role for me is Brick Tamland (Carell). Carell plays the village idiot and he does it with such pizaz and humour that he is easily the best thing about this film, and that is a really big compliment, because the cast as a whole are absolutely hilarious. Applegate, Carell, Ferrell, Koechner and Rudd all play their parts fantastically in the film and it really comes out as a true ensemble piece.

As with all comedies the drive of this film is all about the funniness of it all, and although ridiculous it is has its brilliantly hilarious moments. All in all there is no depth to it, and it is very shallow and this is why it only gets...

★★★☆☆

The Happening

The Happening (2009) Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, Ashlyn Sanchez and John Leguizamo.

Before...If I am honest I hadn't heard a good thing about this film, all of the reviews highlighted its shortcomings and none praised it at all, so I wasn't brimming with confidence about what it would be like. But as always I was looking forward to watching another film!

Elliot Moore (Wahlberg) is a high school science teacher who quizzes his class one day about an article in the New York Times. It's about the sudden, mysterious disappearance of bees. Yet again Nature is doing something inexplicable, and whatever science has to say about it will be, in the end, only a theory. Scientists will bring out more theories, but no explanations, when a more urgent dilemma hits the planet. It begins in Central Park. Suddenly and inexplicably, the behaviour of everyone in the park changes in a most bizarre and horrible way. Soon, the strange behaviour spreads throughout the city and beyond. Elliot, his wife, Alma (Deschanel) , and Julian (Leguizamo), his friend, Jess (Sanchez), Julian's young daughter, will only have theories to guide them where to run and where to hide. But theories may not be enough.

Where to start...the acting in this film is flater than a freshly cooked crepe. It was awful. Until this film I rated Wahlberg as good actor, but there is not only no emotion in his performance but the interaction that he has with other characters is stumbled and very messy. I wished for nothing more than a bit of heart to be added to this film, but I never got it. I didn't care for the characters throughout the film and I lay the blame at the feet of the acting for that.

If I didn't care for the characters due to the acting what does that say about the plot. Well it was confusing, jumbled and had no real direction to it. The whole concept of trees being the bad guy just doesn't do it for me, there just aren't that sinister at all. At one point in M. Night Shyamalan's career he was considered to be a highly accomplished director and writer. Then Lady in the Water came along, he moved to being just an accomplished director...and now this. He has created a movie devoid of characterisation and devoid of plot. In looking at the poster it is almost as if he knows he is on a losing streak, he is trying to remind people of the great movies he has made. A man desperate to pull back good memories. The only thing that he has going for him is The Last Airbender, a stunning film that looks like it could be something real special!

All in all I found this movie lacking in anything...plot, awful. Acting, dreadful. Scenery, clichéd. Again this is another movie that I could not find a single thing good about it...and so welcome to the second movie that recieves...

☆☆☆☆☆

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) starring Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, and Anita Briem.

Before...I feared this film. A take on Jules Vernes classic Journey to the Center of the Earth with Fraser, who at times can be great and at others can be down right awful. What more due to seeing it on the small screen, rather than in the cinema, I wouldn't get the benefit of the 3D imagery unfortunately. So all in all my hopes were low for this film.

Professor Trevor Anderson (Fraser) receives his teenager nephew Sean Anderson (Hutcherson). He will spend ten days with his uncle while his mother, Elizabeth, prepares to move to Canada. She gives a box to Trevor that belonged to his missing brother, Max, and Trevor finds a book with references to the last journey of his brother. He decides to follow the steps of Max with Sean and they travel to Iceland, where they meet the guide Hannah Ásgeirsson (Briem). While climbing a mountain, there is a thunderstorm and they protect themselves in a cave. However, a lightening collapses the entrance and the trio is trapped in the cave. They seek an exit and falls in a hole, discovering a lost world in the center of the Earth.

Where to start...this film was meant to be seen 3D and it would have been a lot better if I had seen it such. The non-3D version doesn't cut any shots, it simply have the zooming out of the screen-ness that 3D films give you. It is a real showcase for 3D films and even though I didn't see it in 3D I could almost imagine each and every 3D shot that I saw without the need for the 3D glasses. This is the real shame, not of the film, but of the fact that I didn't see it in 3D.

The acting is brilliantly camp and it works fantastically. Fraser camps it up brilliantly, as does his fellow two key actors. There is an honesty and a realism that gives the film the lightness and humour to lift it in the league of other films of it's kind, here I refer to Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids films all of which I have a lot of time for.

The difference between this and Rodriguez's Spy Kids films is that this is more adult friendly. The subtle adult humour of the piece is not unlike the sort of humour you would expect from Disney/Pixar films. It does it fantastically, the odd nod suggests a depth of film knowledge that hints at Indy/Rick O'Connell-esque fun. It is this type of role that Fraser excels in.

The plot jumps from peril to peril and yet it does it in such a way that lifts it above the other films that are similar to it. Through the humour and also the Indy style adventure this is a film that surprisingly was very entertaining and I look forward to Fraser doing more of this type of work. A thoroughly enjoyable blockbuster like this definitely deserves...

★★★★☆

American History X

American History X (1998) starring Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Avery Brooks, Ethan Suplee, and Stacy Keach.

Before...this was a film I first watched around the same time as American Beauty and like that at the time I thought it was brilliant. Although it had a message to deliver it did it really well. This is one of my all time favourite films, so I can't see it changing with tonight's viewing.

After Derek Vinyard's (Norton) father is killed in the line of duty by a blackman, Derek's view of mankind is altered, but while in prison, he discovers that there is good and bad in every race. Derek returns from prison, where he was sent because he killed two blackmen, to find his younger brother, Danny (Furlong), caught in the same web of racism and hatred that landed him in prison. The task before him now is to convince Danny of his newfound enlightenment.

My fiancee's views..."It was highly sanctimonious but it was a good effort, someone had to make a film on the topic. ★★★☆☆"

Where to start...the one thing that hit me when I watched it this time, with my fiancee's helping to form my views, was the highly preachy nature of it. The reason I noticed it so much was Laura, she picked up on it through out the film, and to be honest it is there, but I think it kinda has to be there. With a film that deals with Nazism and how the young people of American are being sucked into it, if there isn't some sort of message then the writer has got it wrong. It is a good thing that David McKenna kept true to the material and gave the audience a thought-provokng, albeit, preachy message.

The acting is top rate. Ethan Suplee, as Nortons misguided friend, and Avery Brooks, as the headmaster of the school, both give excellent performances, but it is Norton's performance in the film that sticks with you. On one side you see a psychopathic killer and on the other you see a caring family man who only wants what is best for his family. There are many actors who can switch between roles in different films but the fact that Norton does it within the same film makes it all the more impressive for me.

The plot is simplistic, but not in a bad way. It notes the rise and fall of Derek as a White Supremacist and it does it fantastically, there is a small amount of shame over the clichéd ending, however I cannot see a better way to hammer home the films message. The plot wanted to portray and stark and real message to it's viewers and it is done wondefully.

As I look back over this film I find it hard to see the flaws, yes the ending is slightly clichéd, yes the film tries (and succeeds in my opinion) in ramming a message down your throat, but ultimately I feel that it needs this. In this film is both Beauty and the Beast, beauty being the film and the beast being the horrific and necessary scenes that are portrayed in order to see the two sides of the character. If you want to see a stark portrayal of modern day racism please watch this. I cannot praise this movie enough.

American Beauty

American Beauty (1999) starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, and Chris Cooper.

Before...again another one of those films that came out a long time ago. I saw it for the first time on DVD and was completely captivated by the filming. It was a marvel, the director had really thought about every single shot. Looking back on it now I still see it as one of my favourite films...will I have the same view of it 8 years later?

Lester (Spacey) and Carolyn Burnham (Bening) are on the outside, a perfect husband and wife, in a perfect house, in a perfect neighborhood. But inside, Lester is slipping deeper and deeper into a hopeless depression. He finally snaps when he becomes infatuated with one of his daughter's friends (Suvari). Meanwhile, his daughter Jane (Birch) is developing a happy relationship with a shy boy-next-door named Ricky (Bentley), who lives with a homophobic father (Cooper).

My fiancee's views..."Weird and creepy, and not one that I will rush to watch again anytime soon. I also thought that the acting was poop.★★☆☆☆"

Where to start...looking at it 8 years later, my view of it has changed. Through watching it with my fiancee, I talked wth her about it and started to understand some of her views of it. It is hardly the most happy film, looking at some quite hard hitting topics. It doesn't shy away from the topics and shows them in an honest light, which is refreshing. It portrays the darker heart of American Suburbia, which is actually fascinating; looking at drugs, underage sex and homosexuality. All these things the film portrays as taboo, whether they are or not we are getting the views of the characters, not the views of America as a whole.

The acting in this film is fantastic, Spacey puts in an Oscar winning performance. It is not just him that gives what I consider a career best. Bening, nominated for an Oscar, Birch, Bentley and Cooper all give stellar performances. Each of the actors in it are born for the parts they play, Sam Mendes got the casting perfect. For me though it is Bentley's role as Ricky Fittsin the film thats the stand out one.

The thing in the film that makes me want to watch it again and again is the visual imagery. The use of the camera's in the film deliver the films true push for it to be considered a masterpiece. It is in cinematography that the film truly triumphs, and it is testament to the fact that Conrad L. Hall got the Oscar for Best Cinematography. From delivering fantastic imagery in Lester's dreams to the stunning use of the camcorder imagery done by Ricky Fitts, from the stark bare look of the rooms to the different array of camera shots, Hall has created a sumptuous piece of visual imagery. It is wonderful.

All in all it didn't have the same impact as it did 8 years ago, visually stunning yes, but in watching it with my fiancee I saw a more soap opera side of it. There is definitely more of a clichéd soap opera element to it than I remember. The ending is terribly clichéd, giving it an almost murder mystery quality to it that detracts from the fantastic story. It is this clichéd element that brings the movie down from the five star rating I would have given it to...

★★★★☆