UK Box Office Top 10

1. Pineapple Express
2. Mamma Mia!
3. RocknRolla
4. The Women
5. The Duchess
6. Step Brothers
7. Disaster Movie
8. The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas
9. The Strangers
10. The Dark Knight

US Box Office Top 10

1. Burn After Reading
2. The Family That Preys
3. Righteous Kill
4. The Women
5. Tropic Thunder
6. The House Bunny
7. The Dark Knight
8. Bangkok Dangerous
9. Traitor
10. Death Race

UK Box Office Top 10

1. RocknRolla
2. Mamma Mia!
3. The Duchess
4. Step Brothers
5. Disaster Movie
6. The Strangers
7. The Dark Knight
8. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
9. Get Smart
10. Bangkok Dangerous

US Box Office Top 10

1. Bangkok Dangerous
2. Tropic Thunder
3. The House Bunny
4. The Dark Knight
5. Traitor
6. Babylon A.D.
7. Death Race
8. Disaster Movie
9. Mamma Mia!
10. Pineapple Express

So that time of year has came around again. The time where I am packing my life away to head back to university. And I just can’t be bothered to pack anything. I’m feeling so lethargic today for no apparent reason, and feel a nap coming on sometime soon.

I’ll be heading down tomorrow morning with my Dad driving me (thanks Dad), to head off on the 3-4 hour drive or whatever it may be, back down to Stafford. It is for this reason that I haven’t been posting reviews and such quite as regularly as of late, and likely won’t get back into a rhythm for a few days.

Dependent on my workload and social life when back at uni, I am hoping to start seasons of reviews. So say every Sunday I post a review in a specific theme (genre, director, actor etc.). This should be along with my normal method of, review it when I see it. These seasons should last about 4 weeks each, so 4 films per season. If anyone has any requests for seasons, please leave a comment or send an e-mail with your feedback and ideas.

Anyway, I thought I’d post this little update in the world of me, and regular service should resume soon.

Cheers.

Since I posted the previous top 10s late in the week, I did not realise that the UK statistics aren’t released until Wednesday. So in the future I will be posting the box office top 10s as and when they are released. But here are the results for the weekend of 29th to 31st August.

UK Box Office Top 10

1. Step Brothers
2. Mamma Mia!
3. The Strangers
4. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
5. The Dark Knight
6. Get Smart
7. Babylon A.D.
8. You Don’t Mess With The Zohan
9. Wild Child
10. WALL•E

US Box Office Top 10

1. Tropic Thunder
2. Babylon A.D.
3. The Dark Knight
4. The House Bunny
5. Traitor
6. Death Race
7. Disaster Movie
8. Mamma Mia!
9. Pineapple Express
10. Vicky Cristina Barcelona

A space shuttle crashes on a deserted planet, with only a handful of survivors, including Richard B. Riddick, an escaped convict who was being transfered back to prison. The planet is constantly lit by three suns and seems to be entirely deserted, until the survivors start to look underground.

Here is a trailer:

I saw this film many years ago, possibly near the time of its original release, and eight years after its appearance at the cinema I thought I’d re-watch it to see if my feelings towards it had changed. Now, I am not a fan of Vin Diesel, I think he is pretty poor to be honest. He always seems to deliver his lines with an exaggerated mumble at best, along with always playing a similar role in most of his films, it is hard to find aspects to like. Yet if you look back at his filmography, ‘Pitch Black’ is the first of his roles where he plays this type of character, and I wonder whether he is capable of more but has been typecast by Hollywood and himself resulting in his similar parts.

I haven’t seen too many of Diesel’s films, but of those I have seen, he never does better than he performs in this film. I was able to sit back and forget how dull Diesel usually is, and enjoy the film because of him rather than despite him. In fact, I think he is one of the better characters in the film giving one of the better performances. Granted there is only a cast of 10 or so, and no-one gives a particularly terrible performance, but Diesel did well and you could actually understand what he was saying most of the time.

The story-line is an interesting one with quite a cool concept for a suspenseful action film, even if the major plot point of the film is one hell of a coincidence that they should be there at that specific moment in time. But the story wouldn’t really work without it so I guess I’ll cut the writers some slack.

The advancement of CGI becomes clear and apparent whenever you watch a film from years ago that required its use, and it is a shame that Pitch Black falls victim of poor CGI by modern standards. I’m sure that at the time of release this might have been accepted, but it does not hold up today. The creatures aren’t matched to the scene in a way that makes them believable, it is overly apparent that the actors are swiping in the air against nothing. Where as today a creature placed in the scene can seem as real as any actor or object. It seems as though bad CGI won’t harm a good film, but good CGI can make a bad film seem good, which seems unfair somewhat.

As you have probably guessed, I enjoyed Pitch Black, I enjoyed it the first time I watched it, I still enjoy it now, and I’ll probably watch it in a few years time and enjoy it then. It isn’t perfect, but then again, I can’t think of many films that are perfect. If you are looking for a low budget (since 23 million dollars is pretty low in the mad world of film finance), simple Sci-Fi thriller, you could do worse than give Pitch Black a watch.

Cheers

Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost town in the U.S., where every winter the area is plunged into darkness as the sun sets, and doesn’t rise again for 30 days. Setting the scene for ‘30 Days of Night’, a scene perfect for vampires to have free reign over the small, isolated town.

See the trailer Here (Unfortunately no HD version is available)

This film is based on the graphic novel of the same name. Of which I read on it’s original release a few years ago. It was then when I heard the book had been optioned for a film I was taken with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation.

I thought from the moment I first read the book that the concept was fantastic and wondered how it had not been tackled before. Simple, yet effective. And I also felt it would make a great movie. Yet I still feared that this would become one in a long series of book to screen disasters. That the original source material would become subject to a brutality that would not only result in a terrible film but also cast a shadow over the book destroying it’s own credibility.

Thankfully, I feel I can say that ‘30 days of night’ does not suffer from a fate such as this. Even if my own analysis of the potential situation is a little, if not overly dramatic. The film holds up well and my initial feeling that this could be translated to the screen proved somewhat correct.

The thing that attracted me to the graphic novel in the first place was its distinct artistic style, particularly the depiction of the vampires. I was thrilled to see that the drawings that seemed unfilmable, were recreated on screen successfully. Resulting in fascinating, visceral creatures that instill a dread into both characters and audience alike.

I was pleasantly surprised when I began watching, to see the brilliant talent that is Ben Foster in this film. I first came across Foster in the brilliant HBO series, ‘Six Feet Under‘, where his great performances as Russell made him stand out as one to watch. If you have seen ‘3:10 to Yuma’ you will know what I mean when talking about his talent. His great acting skill results in a performance that stands out above the rest of the cast in ‘30 Days of Night’. I only wish his character of ‘The Stranger’ played a bigger part in the film. I hope that if the new Batman series continues into future movies, that Foster plays a part as one of the villains, as he plays evil with such perfection.

My enthusiasm for Foster cannot translate over to the leading man, Josh Hartnett. When I heard that he was playing the leading role, that was when the fear for this project began. I have never been a fan of Hartnett’s, I find most of his performances rather wooden, not as wooden as Keanu Reeves, but as though the wood has been soaked for a few days prior to being bent into shape. However, I tried not to let his presence on screen sway my judgement against the film, and tried to watch as if I’d never seen nor heard of him before. And to be fair, he is fine in this. He provides an adequate performance, that doesn’t detract from the piece, but he isn’t going to change my opinion of him any time soon.

The director’s name did not ring any bells with me as it appeared on screen. But when I checked online for information on David Slade, I was thrilled to see that he was the director of Hard Candy (2005). A small film which resulted in my first experience of Ellen Page, the fantastic young actress nominated for an Oscar in her role in Juno (2007), and a film I remember enjoying very much (I’ll likely write a review of Hard Candy and Juno sometime in the near future). With Hard Candy being a small, slow paced, Drama/Thriller, it seemed like quite a shift to go onto direct this film, with with its action and gore. Yet he has switched genre’s relatively well.

I feel as though I am praising this film at every corner, however, it does have its problems. Mainly caused by its story. Although Steve Niles, who created the series of books along with Ben Templesmith, co-wrote the screenplay, It still deviated away from the original story. It deviated only slightly but the books (to my memory), generated more depth in the vampire characters that the film did. The most notable change from the book, was the ending, which generated a much more interesting situation for the vampire side of the story.

With a graphic novel, surely the best way to shoot a film of the story, is to use the novel as a storyboard. Granted a graphic novel of a larger size would not be easily made into a film following every panel, but the 30 Days of Night book is relatively small and could easily translated to the screen much more faithfully.

Anyway, I feel I’ve hit a tangent. Despite its slight deviation from the source material, and the presence of Josh Hartnett, I enjoyed ‘30 Days Of Night’. It won’t scare a seasoned horror film watcher, but there are a few decent jumps in the film that do the job asked of them. I’d happily recommend anyone to give it a watch, if only for the great performance from Foster as the creepy Stranger, though the film does have more to it than that. I think I’m starting to go in circles now, so thats it, if you are stuck for something to watch and this is available, you can’t go wrong with giving it a watch.

Cheers Mate

I have debated whether to write a review for this film or not. The screening of ‘The Strangers’ that I was in, seemed to be filled to the brim with the dregs of society. I felt as though I was sat in a youth club, with not many people seeming to be 15 or over. With every jump and scare in the film, the whole audience burst with laughter and talked loudly for what seemed like a long time after. With quite a lot of scares, there was a lot of laughter, and a lot of LOUD talking. In fact I can’t think of the last time I had an experience as bad as I had tonight in a cinema screen. Because of this bad experience, my judgement on the film maybe skewed, but now I know what happens I don’t think re-watching it would benefit.

With that spiel over with, I guess I’ll get on with some sort of a review. Well, I’ll begin with a brief synopsis.

A young couple return home after attending a wedding reception, where they are then terrorised by a group of ’strangers’.

A short synopsis yes. I did say brief. You can click Here to see a trailer.

The old favourite horror technique, ‘This story is inspired by real events’ unnecessarily opens the film in my opinion. Although an argument may be that it makes the audience think ‘oh god this could happen to me’, the message is usually forgotten at some point through the film. Personally if I were to use this technique, I think it would be more effectively placed at the end of the film. So that fear a viewer has, is with them as they go home, reenforcing the images they have seen.

Despite my bad cinematic visit, I have tried to think objectively about the film, to form an accurate opinion on the film rather than my experience. Suspense is generated extremely effectively, with great pace and timing for each individual scare. The characters are believable and act almost as one would expect them to in such a situation, with a few exceptions that result in typical frustration at times.

I don’t know what it is with bags and sacks on heads at the moment, but it seems to be a technique used in a lot of films recently. Probably beginning with ‘Scarecrow’ in Batman Begins, to the kid in ‘The Orphanage’, and the characters in the upcoming ‘Baghead’. Whatever it is, it seems to work. More so than most conventional masks like in ‘Halloween’, it seems that a good old bag or sack seems to scare people to their wits end. The ‘leader’ of the strangers does not disappoint, his look is genuinely terrifying, and I think if i went to my window and he was looking back at me, I’d need a change of clothes pretty quickly.

The performances of the actors did not disappoint as their was no noticeably bad elements or their performances. Though they won’t be winning awards any time soon.

It is refreshing to see a film classified as horror these days that is not a 90 minute torture-porn gore-fest, and that traditional psychological thrillers still have a place in modern cinema.

Despite the great buildup of suspense throughout the film, the ending left much too be desired. In fact, the ending was poor and felt very rushed. As though first time writer/director Bryan Bertino had no idea how to successfully conclude his story which held such great potential. I’m sure Bertino will go on to hone his craft and I hope his next project, ‘Alone’, is a lot more polished and refined.

Cheers

Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney in the eponymous role, follows a ‘Fixer’ at a high profile New York law firm. To prevent me from spoiling any of the plot here is the trailer, a higher quality version is available at Apple Movie Trailers.

At the 2008 Academy Awards, ‘Michael Clayton’ was nominated for no less than 7 awards, one of which was won. These were:

Nominated

• Best Achievement in Directing – Tony Gilroy
• Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score – James Newton Howard
• Best Motion Picture Of The Year – Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox, Kerry Orent
• Best Performance by an Actor In A Leading Role – George Clooney
• Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role – Tom Wilkinson
• Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen – Tony Gilroy

Won

• Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role – Tilda Swinton

Personally I like to watch a film before the Oscar ceremony has taken place. I prefer it even more if I can watch a film before the awards shortlist is released. But that is a rare occurrence, especially when living in the UK with the release dates of many nominated films not coming around until after the event. The reason I prefer to watch a film under these circumstances is so that I am not made to feel that the film in question is better than it actually is. Thankfully, with 6 months or so since the Academy Awards, I had forgotten all about the particular nominations, except for that of Tilda Swinton’s win, which I did recall. It was only when looking up the details on the film after viewing that I was reminded of its strong presence.

So, in retrospect, did the film deserve so many nominations? I may be tempted to cause some sort of a controversy by saying no, and that the system in place for the Oscars is less than desirable. However I am not going to say such a thing for Michael Clayton, I believe it deserves all the praise that can be bestowed upon it. 2008 just happened to be a very strong awards season with many fine films and performances on show, and if Michael Clayton was up against other films in another season, it may have won a lot more than its 1 of 7. When up against ‘No Country For Old Men’, and ‘There Will Be Blood’, it is going to be difficult to gain anything over them.

The stand out performance, in my opinion, came from the great Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Edens, a top figure in a law firm who has an ‘episode’ and loses his professional judgement in a class action suit. The film opens with a monologue performed by Wilkinson, initially over blank screen, and then with a sequence of images around the law firm’s building. His performance in these few minutes alone are remarkably captivating and powerful, setting up a great benchmark for the remainder of his performance.

I can’t think of any film I have seen with George Clooney in the cast, where I have seen him give a poor performance. I am a fan of his acting work, as well as his directorial efforts. Here, he does not disappoint. With every line, the audiences attention on his voice does not waver, as he delivers with conviction and clarity.

Again, Tilda Swinton gives a superb performance and thoroughly deserved her win at the Academy Awards. Playing the face of the corporation to which the class action suit is against. Playing this role, Swinton effectively portrays all of the nuances of moral conflict clearly, yet subtly in her performance.

Not forgetting the late great Sydney Pollack, who also acted as Executive Producer on the project. Pollock plays the head of the law firm, and Clayton’s superior, and friend. Acting in his penultimate role before his death, he gave a performance as natural as ever, with another great entry on his long and prolific career.

This was the directorial debut of Tony Gilroy, who is better known as a screenwriter, with great screenplays such as ‘The Bourne Identity’, ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ to his credit. And what a debut it was. It is not often that a screenwriter can so successfully transition over to directing, but Gilroy achieves this, as though he should have been directing all along. I am eagerly awaiting Gilroy’s next directing piece ‘Duplicity’ which is currently scheduled for release in March 2009.

As I’m sure you can guess, I quite liked this film. The pacing and suspense of the film are well executed with a great script and so many great performances. Though I must say this film requires concentration, if you drift off it is possible that you may miss some key points that tie the film together. In fact I feel I may have done so myself and will likely re-watch sometime in the near future to make sure I picked up everything there is to offer.

Cheers

I have decided to keep track of US and UK box office top 10s, and so I am starting with last weekend’s figures.

UK Box Office Top 10

1. Hellboy II: The Golden Army
2. Mama Mia!
3. Get Smart
4. The Dark Knight
5. You Don’t Mess With The Zohan
6. The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
7. Wild Child
8. WALL•E
9. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
10. Space Chimps

US Box Office Top 10

1. Tropic Thunder
2. The House Bunny
3. Death Race
4. The Dark Knight
5. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
6. Pineapple Express
7. Mirrors
8. Mamma Mia!
9. The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
10. The Longshots

All figures are taken from IMDb and are copyright of their respective contributors.