Movie: Deliver Us from Evil Saw this as a popcorn taxi preview. A documentary about the documented and admitted failings of an Irish priest in America, and the fallout from his actions. Although there’s nothing shown, the subject matter means it’s not for the faint-hearted. Perhaps surprisingly, the film doesn’t set out to demonize anyone: …
Category Archives: movie
Movie: Spider-Man 3
Movie: Spider-Man 3 On the IMAX at Darling Harbour, which was itself a little too big to watch the film: there are occasions where things happen just out of shot, and you find yourself turning your head to see what’s happening. Though filled with visual effects, and a worthy sequel, don’t expect anything beyond the …
Movie: The Reaping
Movie: The Reaping What starts out as a documentary-style film with the occasional jump moment quickly orphs into a horror movie, all with a religious sub-plot. Special effects are good, but without the plot and characters to hold it together, this is more a cautionary tale of movie-making than anything else.
Movie: Shooter
Movie: Shooter Mark Wahlberg in a by-the-numbers Hollywood action thriller. If you like movies with explosions, and with plot twists, and you’re prepared to suspend your sense of legal justice, then this is a movie that you’ll like to see. Having decided on the film based on Wahlberg and the explosions, dodge the trailer if …
Movie: The Lives of Others
Movie: The Lives of Others The critics have been fairly uniform in their praise for this film. The period of history – East Germany before the Berlin Wall came down – was unfamiliar to me, but the film captures the mood of people living under such a regime: constantly fawning to those in power, looking …
Movie: Copying Beethoven
Movie: Copying Beethoven This wasn’t on my “must see” list, but a free ticket is a free ticket. Early on, I was wondering to myself what the point of the film was: after al, it’s a fictionalised account of the last year (or three) of Ludwig van Beethoven’s life: so we’re not seeing the historical …
300
Movie: 300 I wasn’t going to watch this one, but having arranged to see a movie with a friend, we had a late venue change, and this was the leading option. As it turns out, it was quite a watchable film, and not as violent as I had feared. There’s certainly a lot of violence, …
Movie: Hot Fuzz
Movie: Hot Fuzz From the makers (and some of the cast) of Shaun of the Dead. Instead of subverting zombie films in creating a movie that switches genre every two or three scenes, this movie is based on buddy cop films – and has worse language even than those. It also, in its scenes of …
Movie: The Queen
Movie: The Queen If ever someone earned a best actress Oscar for embodying a role, it’s Mirren. Perhaps she already looks like Queen Elizabeth the second, and that certainly helps, but the dignity she brings to the role, the masterfully constrained emotion: excellent work, good to watch. The other characterisations are good, but it’s the …
Movie: Stranger Than Fiction
Stranger Than Fiction Easily the biggest surprise of the film is that Will Ferrell can actually act. This film won’t be to everyone’s tastes; if you enjoyed I Heart Huckabees, then you’ll like it. Emma Thompson and Maggie Gyllenhaal are both excellent, and well cast, and Dustin Hoffman was probably my favourite character in the …