The boat that rocked 4/5 charming
Transporter 3 Fine 3/5
The Fountain Fabulously filmic 4.5/5
Day of the Dead 3/5 humdrum
Choke Surprisingly humane and intelligent 4/5
Iron Man 2 4/5 good fun, good second act
State of Play 3/5 meh
The International 4/5 good, complex thriller
Kick Ass 3.5/5 entertaining but morally dubious
I love you man 4/5 fine
Category Archives: film review
TV/ Movie notes
I’m really getting out of the habit of these.
Duplicity 3.5/5 Entertaining and a good ending
Push 3/5 So-so
Seven Pounds 4/5 Very interesting and well done, not sure it’s at all orthodox though.
Now for the trashy ones:
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans 3/5
Friday 13th (remake) 4/5 Better than the original
Lesbian Vampire Killers: 2/5 utter drivel
Also watching at the moment:
Torchwood (season 2) – gets better and better, particularly liked the memory episode
Caprica – excellent, really engages with the themes of identity
Lost – is managing to raise my hopes that it will achieve a better resolution than BSG
24 – average
Fringe – Walter Bishop is a genius character, but the programme as a whole has lost its way
I’ve also been a very naughty boy. Let’s just say I now have the capacity to play Bioshock 2, but not on my PC….
Movie notes
My Best Friend’s Girl 3/5 fine
Over her dead body 3/5 ditto
Max Payne 3/5 stylish but empty and it got more annoying as time went on
30 Days of Night 3.5/5 pretty effective, marred slightly by the stupid decision of the lead character at the end
Mirrors 3.5/5 some good elements but yet another really annoying and misanthropic ending. Might write something longer about this trend of hatefulness.
Surveillance 3/5 Well made but morally bankrupt, bordering on the outright evil. I must be getting more grumpy in my old age
Avatar
Highly enjoyable with a lot of great visuals, but I’m not sure it’ll go down in history as a great film. I think 3D is overrated too. 4/5
Movie notes
Chaos 3/5 Statham was woefully miscast; it needed someone much older like Brian Cox.
Halloween (2007) 4/5 Much better than I had been led to expect; the first 1/3rd was excellent.
Body of Lies 4.5/5 Tremendous and lingers in the mind.
War, Inc 2.5/5 Everything that Body of Lies wasn’t. Cusack really should be ashamed of himself for helping to produce such dreck.
Quarantine 3/5 the occasional good moment glinting like brass in a sea of muck.
Yesman 3/5 Jim Carrey doing his thing.
Bedtime tales 3/5 Adam Sandler doing his thing.
The Tale of Desperaux 4/5 one of the more assertively Christian films I’ve seen in some time, and the kids loved it.
Some recent films
Not worth bothering with a separate post for each; I still want to use the blog to keep a record of the films I see, but I don’t need to say more than the minimum!
Don’t mess with the Zohan 3/5 (very silly)
City of Ember 3.5/5 (solid family fare)
Role Models 3.5/5 (sweet)
Species: Awakening 2.5/5 (I have a new appreciation for what ‘straight to video‘ means!)
Skinwalkers 2/5 (one of the worst scripts I’ve ever experienced, with absolutely no care and attention to, or even awareness of, werewolf lore)
Saw V 3/5 (better than expected)
Burn After Reading
Absurdly and horribly hilarious. Brad Pitt deserves a prize for his performance. 4/5
Zack and Miri…
Simultaneously cynical and sweet; probably Kevin Smith’s best since Chasing Amy, but as a window into contemporary US mores, the mind boggles. 3.5/5
2012
Total nonsense but I loved it, and the script was wittier and more interesting than I expected (so: it had enough ideas for an episode of Fringe…) 4/5
License to Wed
Unfunny and unChristian. 2.5/5