Okay last time I had a long absence, I had a an elaborate excuse, like I got in a fight with a wizard and he turned my fingers into sausages making it near impossible to type, something like that, but the fact is yes I have been really busy the last month or so, but during my downtime I’ve also been quite lazy, coupled with the fact I also haven’t watched many new films, there have been a few, but mostly it’s been stuff I’ve seen before like the original Planet of the Apes movies, and since I've yet to watch the new Apes movie I can't write about those. So now that I’ve cured cancer, fought off the Mongol hordes and found One-Eyed Willies treasure, I have time to both watch movies and write about them, but rather than the usual format, I’ll give you a quick rundown of the new films I’ve seen since last we met.
· Yogi bear – a fairly average family film, however Dan Ackroyd does make a pretty good Yogi, but is completely outshined by Justin Timberlake’s Boo Boo, which is spot on.
· Taken – A lot of people raved on about this, but I really didn’t see what was so good about it, yes it was entertaining, which is always the first box any film should tick, but it wasn’t anything special.
Basically Liam Neeson, rather than having his kindly, wise and smiley eyed head on, has his shouty, annoyed, ‘I just dropped my toast butterside down’ head on, running around Paris, doing his best Jason Bourne impression, in search of his kidnapped daughter.
· Source Code – The second film from Moon director Duncan Jones, who also spent his early years known as Zowie Bowie. Source Code, if it was to be described as a formula would end up something like this:
(12 monkeys – Terry Gilliam Weirdness) + (Groundhog day – Bill Murray) X TV’s Quantum Leap = Source Code.
Although I have trivialised it somewhat, it is a good film, I wasn’t sold by the trailer, but the involvement of Jones peaked my interest, given the shear brilliance of Moon.
· Submarine – The Directorial film debut from Richard Ayoade, better known as Moss from TV’s IT Crowd. Submarine is a coming of age comedy drama, set in the mid80’s it follows Oliver Tate, an oddball 15 year old, who has two missions in life, firstly to lose his virginity and secondly prevent the separation of his parents.
There are so many things I like about this film, Ayoade’s direction is beautiful, his previous work in music videos is quite evident. There are brilliant, yet understated performances from the cast of largely unknowns, with narration from Oliver (Craig Roberts, who also pops up in Jane Eyre) running throughout the film and a soundtrack from Alex Turner (Artic Monkeys frontman) in his first solo outing.
I’d currently put this in my top five films of the year, and given we’re into October, it’s properly pretty safe.
· Planet Hulk – While Marvel have been making their live action films, gearing towards next year’s Avengers movie, they’ve also been churning out a series, nine by my count, of straight to DVD animated movies. Their straight to DVD nature shouldn’t mean they’re dismissed, neither that they’ve only been detected on the radar of children and comic geeks, there have been some excellent titles so far, including two avengers movies, Wolverine Vs. The Hulk, and Thor: Tales of Asgard, where we see Thor as a youngster.
But out of them all I think this is my favourite. Hulk, who no longer seems to revert back to Bruce Banner, but does seem to be a more intelligent creature than his previous rage fuelled wrecking ball, has been exiled from earth. Eventually Hulk lands on a planet where he is forced to compete in a series of gladiatorial games.
· Jane Eyre – based on the novel by Charlotte Bronte, a period drama featuring such British talent as Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell and Judi Dench. Not a film I’d ever have chosen to go and see myself, but certainly entertaining enough, probably helped by the fact I didn’t know the story at all. Certainly a way to earn points with the future Mrs Lazertooth, and an ideal way to get her to see something she would rather not, pulling out the trump card of “yeah, but I did go and watch Jane Eyre”
· Final destination 4 - I haven’t seen 2 & 3, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say they’re the same. If it wasn’t for ‘her indoors’ who actually likes the first three movies, I’d never have rented this, and frankly I wouldn’t have missed a thing. A rather bland by the numbers horror, but that’s not really a surprise when you’ve seen the first film. Yeah, it was an original concept for a horror, but for me the novelty wore off before the credits rolled.
So there you go, a basic run down of the previously unseen movies viewed during by blog hiatus. Some, probably not given the write up they deserve, while others probably received much more.
And I promise normal transmission will resume shortly.
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