Movie: The Good Shepherd When De Niro directs a film, it’s usually worth a viewing, and this one is certainly no exception to that. Sure, the film lacks something in plot. Mostly a story about self-sacrifice for the greater good, this is largely a study of Matt Damon’s acting abilities, and they’re certainly on the …
Category Archives: movie
Movie: Deja Vu
Movie: Deja Vu Don’t think too hard about the plot, or the characters, just enjoy the ride. If you’re a fan of the work of Jerry Bruckheimer, and/or Tony Scott, you know what to expect. As a refreshing change, some of the violence is left as implied, rather than shown on screen – what is …
Pan’s Labyrinth
Pan’s Labyrinth Filmed in Spanish, with English subtitles. Billed as a fairytale for adults, this is close to the mark. It’s hard not to be caught up in the story, and swept along with what’s happening. Del Torro has written and directed an amazing work. Yes, it’s violent – mainly the violence of the ruthless …
The Pursuit of Happyness
Movie: The Pursuit of Happyness Another Will Smith Oscar vehicle. This time, he eschews the majority of the wisecracks for the role of an incredibly hard-working single parent. A good story, but with the poor lighting, it was hard at times to tell how good Smith’s acting was. Thandie Newton was great as Smith’s wife. …
Flushed Away
Movie: Flushed Away Kid-friendly humour, in an Aardman animation kind of way. Laugh-out-loud funny in places; a constant run of visual references to other film and culture. Good vocal performances, in a pantomime sense. It even has a mime!
Movie: Babel
Movie: Babel The Tower of Babel is the bible story where God confuses the language of the people on earth. The uniting element of this film is seeing people from a range of different languages and cultures fail to communicate with each other. A somewhat depressing, but clever film that interweaves a series of plots …
Happy Feet
Movie: Happy Feet A movie that kids who are tolerant to occasional scares will enjoy (there were a few tears in the screening I caught). Environmental message meets big musical and dance numbers, with a few Robin Williams lines thrown in for good measure. Watchable, though probably not my favourite movie this year.
A Scanner Darkly
Movie: A Scanner Darkly Somewhere in this concept is a good movie itching to get out. Sadly, in its execution, it misses the mark; the painted-over visuals just make everything harder to see: there’s a loss of cinematic depth that is quite frustrating. While some of the dialogue is quite funny, in general it is …
Movie: The Prestige
The Prestige I’d heard nothing but good things about this movie, and it lives up to its reputation: the story of an obsession between two magicians, told in Christopher Nolan' trademark non-linear way. The use of diaries, and flashback; the interplay between the characters, how fast the two-hour-long film seems to go… it’s well worth …
Movie: Catch a Fire
Movie: Catch a Fire Tim Robbins is the drawcard for this bio-pic of a South African freedom fighter. The main problem I saw with it was that it didn’t make apartheid seem like such a bad thing: more of a rallying point for the African people than a system of oppresion. Sure, at the start …