WeatherGirl’s Station

Sweet. This movie was so much fun. The main performances were very good. A very enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours.

Current temperature: here 9C/48F, there 55F/13C

Stunning. Another film of epic proportions that doesn’t drag for a single moment. Hauntingly beautiful, it just sucked me in. Elegiac for a past time and place, winding towards a predestined tragic end. A poem that tells how violence merely begets more violence. How this movie didn’t rack up the Oscar nominations is a complete mystery. The music and cinematography wove together intimately and evoked an aching melancholy.

(For reasons known only to them, our local cinema brought this movie back for two more screenings. I so glad they did it, it was spectacular.)

Current temperature: here 6C/43F, there 25F/-4C

Cool. This was a great little movie featuring a range of interesting quirky characters who I actually enjoyed spending time with. Ellen Page is one cool actress, it’s amazing to think she was the ‘little’ girl in Hard Candy. That’s quite a range for someone so young. I’m very pleased with the way the movie resolved the relationship between Juno and her baby’s prospective father. Initially, the script is written in such a way that he has your sympathy and you see his wife as a less lovable character. But as he develops a relationship with Juno things become creepier and creepier. Fortunately they bring things to a head before you think about deserting the cinema.

It was nice seeing Minnesota on the big screen though the film was clearly made on a tiny budget as the cinematography was not the greatest and the focus puller was having a rather hard time of things.

I laughed a lot and would watch this again.

Current temperature: here 12C/54F, there 19F/-7C

Harmless. So the young’un and I whiled away a few hours with this movie. Yes, the premise is rather odd as a father tells the story of how he met and married his daughter’s mother by anonymising his experiences with three women. And, yes, the male lead did not really have too much going for him in the way of personality, being of the vapid and bland variety. But I did enjoy watching Rachel Weisz and Isla Fisher create two interesting fleshed out adult female characters. The third main female role, played by Elizabeth Banks, had so little to work with that she really made no impression at all.

Current temperature: here 12C/54F, there 19F/-7C

Holy moley! Never has a three hour movie flown by so fast. Wow. That was amazing. Epic on a gigantic scale. Daniel Day Lewis was incredible and mesmerising. And not for one single minute did I know how it was going to play out. Who was going to do what to whom? That is a very rare thing with movies today. Watching the danger and awfulness of conditions in the early days of drilling for oil it makes you wonder how they ever managed it. I especially enjoyed the score which definitely added to the tension I experienced. There are so many layers and insights to be seen that I’m still boggling at the enormity of the whole thing.

Current temperature: here 12C/54F, there 19F/-7C

Sweet. A rather old fashioned family film but enjoyable nonetheless. The water horse was a cutie and quite expressive. The ending was rather bittersweet and much better for it. People faced their fears and recognised their own failings. Nicely acted by all.

Current temperature: here -1C/30F, there 36F/2C

Disappointing. I was so looking forward to this movie. The advertising really whetted my appetite and I went into the cinema with great expectations. Sadly I discovered that the music just wasn’t up to the job. There are about two decent songs in the production and the rest just sounds like one long moan of sameness. The visuals reinforced this monotony thought there were moments that were quite stunning but certainly not enough to effectively engage my interest for more than momentary pleasure. The threat of falling asleep was ever present. I think Tim needs to look at finding some new line of exploration as this is merely more of the same and adding nothing new to things he’s already said.

Current temperature: here 5C/41F, there 5F/-15C

Stunning. This, right here, is why Phi and I go to the movies so often. So we can come out of the cinema and spend the entire walk home discussing what we just saw. There are so many parallels with Fargo here. An amazing landscape that the film makers seem to be in tune with. A slow steady pace that lets you cogitate on what happens but doesn’t go so slow it gets tedious. Dark, dark humour. A seriously cool lawman.

The presence of evil is soaked right through this movie, its effects and the the exercise there of, and I sort of got to thinking of the bad guy as the devil. May be that was not the intention of those involved but it was an easy leap for me to make. Also they didn’t pull any punches which led to some shocking scenes. Any other outcome would have completely trashed the endeavour.

The sight and sound of West Texas was pitch perfect. And as for Josh Brolin? He seems to be aging into a career.

Go, see, watch, think. Holy cow it’s good.

Current temperature: here 3C/37F, there -11F/-24C

Heartbreaking. Superficially about the disappearance of a soldier who has just returned from Iraq, this film delves into the effects of a war like that being fought in Iraq on human beings. The performances are superb. Plus there are some very subtle comments on certain male behaviour that made me want to hug someone. There’s no triumphant ending, no platitudes, and a great deal of human suffering along the way, but a number of characters are changed by the experience and that always gives one hope.

Current temperature: here 3C/37F, there -11F/-24C

Creepy. This was very tense for much of its length though became less so as we were allowed to see more of the de-evolved humans. Less is usually better than more. There’s a little to much of Will Smith on his own. He’s not quite good enough an actor to hold your attention completely on his own for as long as this requires. I loved his relationship with Sam and the character’s ‘dedication to working the problem’ though. The end piece was a mite trite and ‘pretty’ given what had occurred just before.

Current temperature: here 8C/46F, there 16F/-9