Wall-E 

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Ultimately charming and heart-warming Pixar effort is a sheer delight from start to finish. Homage’s to 2001, E.T and all your favourite childhood Sci-Fi movies are plentiful and just to realise so much emotion from an animated robot that hardly talks throughout the entire movie is a feat in itself. The Blu-ray version will be stunning!

 
 
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Monday, October 13 2008
 
Asides, Film Review
 

Short Reviews #31 

The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (2008)
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The superhero movie bar has been raised yet again with The Dark Knight, a near flawless Hollywood blockbuster that could easily be the best picture of the year. It’s more elaborate and epic in every department from the screenplay and the action set pieces through to the performances than its predecessor. There’s been so much talk about Heath Ledger’s performance and whilst I doubted him in the role when I first heard he was cast, his gusto and enthusiasm for the role comes through in truckloads with easily one of the greatest screen villains of all time. He’s up there with Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates as an instantly memorable, calculated, and intelligent villain. Director Christopher Nolan has taken reference to Michael Mann’s 1992 drama Heat, particularly in the opening scene. Special mention should also go to the screenplay penned by Nolan and his brother Jonathon. Whereas the first film is all about beginnings and who Bruce Wayne is, this sequel places greater emphasis on the other characters such as Gordon, The Joker, Harvey Dent and Lucious Fox. By giving each character a third dimension however, you also extend the running time and that’s perhaps my only gripe with the film (oh and perhaps how Bruce Wayne’s voice changes when he becomes Batman). At two hours and thirty minutes, it does feel a little long, especially towards the final thirty minutes. Luckily the longer runtime can be forgiven since the quality of the material is constantly entertaining. Hopefully Nolan and co will return for a third film in the series but it’s going to take a mighty effort on everyone’s behalf to top this one.

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Tuesday, August 12 2008
 
Film Review
 

Short Reviews #30 

Cloverfield
Cloverfield (2008)
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Who doesn’t love a good monster movie? Note the word ‘good’ because there are plenty of monster movies that suck. But Cloverfield isn’t one of them. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the filmmakers went down the whole Jaws route in that they don’t reveal the ‘monster’ fully until much later in the film. And secondly, the use of hand-held camera-work and attention to suspense work beautifully, as it did in The Blair Witch Project. Brought to us by Lost and Alias creator J.J. Abrams (he didn’t direct this however) and rolled out over a highly successful online campaign, the film delivers the goods where it needs to. Letting the film down slightly is the two-dimensional, fresh-faced WB-lookers but that doesn’t matter a great deal since all the effort has gone into the execution and special effects and that’s what you pay your money for with these films. It would be nice to have stronger characters in there but it’s not essential for a film like Cloverfield. It’s intense and original enough to recommend it.

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Monday, January 21 2008
 
Film Review
 
Previous Ramblings