WeatherGrrrl's Station

Entertaining. With such dense source material it’s amazing as much of the books ends up on the screen as it does. Though, much must be omitted due to time constraints, I think they captured the essence of this book while creating a complete and satisfying story in and of itself.

Visually this movie is stunning and definitely a real pleasure to watch. It evokes a full range of emotions and certainly packs quite a wallop at the end. I enjoyed all the performances and don’t think there’s a weak one among them. Definitely worth visiting the cinema for.

Current temperature: here 86F/30C, there 16C/61F

Explosive. Lots of great special effects, action sequences and explosions. A little weak on thinky thoughts but sometimes one just wants to be amused for a few hours, eat some popcorn and drink some soda. This movie definitely breathes new life into another sagging franchise. I thought John and Kyle Connor were excellently played and there were kick-arse women as well! Shock!!!! Horror!!!

My main objection to the movie is at the end, which I won’t give away here, but it definitely made me want to smack people for its ridiculousness and unethicalness.

Current temperature: here 86F/30C, there 16C/61F

Shiny. A rollicking ride of a movie that pumps new life into an aged franchise. Much fun is to be had so long as you don’t want to think too much about what is going on. Zachary Quinto rocks as Spock and, truth be told, this is his movie not Kirk’s. Kirk is so one dimensional and adolescent-boy it’s amazing they even let him in the door. Anyway, buy yourself a soda, a little popcorn and enjoy the ride.

Current temperature: here 77F/25C, there 18C/64F

Brilliant. This has got to be one of the best films I’ve seen in a long time. Visually beautiful and terribly haunting it engages the emotions as well as the old grey cells. Kate Winslet creates another complete and complex human being who you can empathise with while at the same time hating her choices.

Current temperature: here 73F/23C, there 18C/64F

Intriguing. After hearing Mark Kermode’s review on Fivelive we made a concerted effort to see this indy movie and well worth the effort it was too. I’m not going to say much about the story as one of the pleasures of this film is watching events unfold and trying to work out what is going on and how it will all resolve itself. Sam Rockwell’s performance is stellar and worth the price of admission alone. It’s so cool to see a movie where the script and ideas were of more import that the special effects. Even if you’re not a scifi geek you’ll be well rewarded for watching this movie.

A heads up: you need to pay attention, even the smallest detail is important and this movie’s makers assume you have a brain that you use and so don’t bash you over the head with the obviousness of a blockbuster.

Current temperature: here 72F/22C, there 18C/64F

Tosh. Tosh, tosh, drivel, drivel, tosh, tosh, drivel, drivel, *lol*, drivel, drivel, drivel, *lol*, utter tosh, utter drivel, ad nauseam.

So, yeah, it really was that awful and I must confess we did not expect much better. Mostly we went to support the local movie theatre, eat popcorn and kibbitz.

Also, the magnificent Ewan, wasn’t. *sigh*

Current temperature: here 73F/23C, there 12C/54F

Blargh! So I was completely underwhelmed. I know it’s based on a comic book but I still expect films, regardless of the source material, to have some depth amongst all the packaging. Even if they’re only hidden depths! This was nothing but surface and caricature and wasn’t even very shiny surface and caricature. The green screen effects were pretty crap too. Have these people not watched the LotR trilogy? You’d have thought this was 1959 not 2009 based on the really obvious back projection going on. Plus, plus, *tears out hair* there were scenes shot with green screen where all they needed was to take the actors outside to a suitable location and film. Argh!

There were two bright spots in all this dreck. Liev Schreiber was appropriately gruff and growly and abundantly take homeable as Sabretooth. Dominic Monaghan also performed with way more depth than clearly the director expected which is why, I assume, there’s almost nothing of him on screen.

PS: Could have done with more naked HJ. That would have gone along way to making me a slightly less grumpy viewer.

Current temperature: here 52F/11C, there 10C/50F

Entertaining. A well made and engaging film if a little on the predictable side. The highlight is the performance of Ahney Her, who makes the most of the opportunity to create an interesting female character despite the stereotypical meme the character serves. It’s worth seeing the film to watch her performance alone.

Current temperature: here 50F/10C, there 11C/52F