Anyway, to the movies!
January 8th - 50/50Anyone who has kept up to date with my blog will know I'm a fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He consistently makes interesting movie choices and has been in some of my favourites from the last few years - Brick, (500) Days of Summer and Inception to name but a few. Seth Rogen? Pretty much the opposite. I tend to avoid any movie he's in as he essentially just plays his role from Knocked Up Every. Single. Time. And Knocked Up wasn't even that great! But here, they make perfect best friends, dealing with Gordon-Levitt's character developing cancer. It's a strange balance the movie has to keep between humour and serious subject matter, but it just about manages it. It's also a movie with a lot of hope and an ending that will warm the heart. Just don't go into it believing that this is along the same lines as Superbad. It's much better than that. Definitely recommend you check this out.
8/10
January 9 - Rear Window
My birthday? Only one movie was ever going to be watched and that is Alfred Hitchcock's greatest cinematic achievement - 1954's Rear Window. The poster hangs proudly framed on my wall. It astounds me that this movie was made nearly 60 years ago. Back in a time where special effects were not the be all and end all of movie making. When the script was the most important aspect of any movie. When Hitch was at the height of his creative powers. James Stewart was the most bankable movie star on the planet, and Grace Kelly the most beautiful. There is not a single wasted frame, a single wasted line. Everything is just perfect. This is my go to movie whatever the occasion. It follows James Stewart's photographer, who after getting a little too close to the action at a racing circuit, is confined to a wheelchair with nothing to do but 'look out the window at the neighbours all day'. Naturally his mind wanders and he suspects one of them has killed his wife. As well as that there's the lonely woman a few floors down, a newly married couple to his left, a composer struggling with his latest composition to his right, and the biggest danger of all, a girlfriend who wants to tie him down. I really cannot recommend this movie enough. It has hidden depths yet is deceptively playful. Perfection.10/10
January 10th - Up in the Air
This is a movie I've been wanting to catch for a while. I didn't even let the fact that the man responsible for making the atrocity that is 'Juno' directed this. Highly acclaimed, rewarded at the Oscars and it has George Clooney headlining. Personally I think it's unfair that a man as cool and good looking as George Clooney exists, but he is the definition of a movie star. And it is he who carries this movie. It is about a man who travels around America for 330 days a year, firing people from large companies and helping them through this transitional period of their lives. He is so good at it, that he actually is able to make it sound like he is doing you a favour. This all changes when his company modernises the way they can do their jobs, by firing people over skype and therefore saving themselves the thousands upon thousands of dollars they spend sending their employees in person. To a man who can fit his life 'into a backpack', this is not good news. He has no family close by, no wife or girlfriend and the most minimalist of apartments. It all changes, as ever, when he falls for a woman...I found this movie to be very uneven. The first half, dealing with this lifestyle and how good he is at living it, is almost playful and light. Then he goes home for a while and it changes into something else. Then he finds out the truth about the woman he has fallen for. Then the company changes their stance again and is going to send agents out on the road. It just switches focus and tone a few too many times for my liking. I enjoyed it to a degree, but certainly wouldn't be in a rush to watch it again.6/10
January 11th - The Bourne Supremacy
Part 2 of The Bourne Trilogy. And these movies really do just get better as they go along. Paul Greengrass, director of United 93, had come on board to direct this installment and this is where it finds its groove. Bourne is living in India, off the grid, with his girlfriend Marie. He still suffers from crippling flashbacks as he tries to piece his life together from before he was shot. But he is doing so peacefully and staying far away from Treadstone. All this changes when Marie is shot and killed and Bourne is framed for a botched CIA operation in which agents were killed. Bourne sets out to find out what really happened, and find who killed Marie. Along the way he also discovers the details of the flashbacks he's been having of his first ever operation. The action here is fantastic, the story layered and intelligent and the ending strangely poetic yet perfectly fitting for a movie within this genre. It's actually surprising that it's a route that has never been taken before. Suffice to say that once I watched this, Ultimatum was not going to be far behind......ps I don't really think the Bourne movies are anything like the Bond movies, I just thought this was a perfect cartoon drawing of Matt Damon!9/10
Day 12 - After the Sunset
Well, it had to happen somewhere. There had to be a stinker along the way. I really should have known when the words directed by Brett 'The Hack' Ratner (to give him his full name) popped up on screen, that I was in for a logic free zone, a continually poor attempt at humor (almost always from a homophobic standpoint where two men even being close to each other is supposed to be funny) and a mercifully short running time as ideas where thin on the ground. It all stinks of 'we're Hollywood, let's just get money and fly to paradise and make up a movie as we go along'. The worst thing is that the idea is pretty solid. Most heist movies end with the big score, this one starts with it, and then asks the question - 'what next?'. In a perfect world, this could have been a sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair, with Pierce Brosnan reprising his role, and a bit of grace and intelligence brought to the table. And certainly a better director. As I say, decent ideas, poorly executed. The mark below is almost just for Salma Hayek being in an assortment of bikini's for the whole movie. About the only thing Brett Ratner got right.3/10
Day 13 - The Bourne Ulimatum
After the movie that I'd had to endure the day before, I needed to have my faith in movies re-established. Look no further than the concluding chapter in the Bourne Trilogy. I know they're currently making another Bourne movie, 'The Bourne Legacy' with Jeremy Renner. I'll reservce judgement until I know more. But at least it won't have Matt Damon in it and therefore this can remain an almost perfect trilogy. Bourne still hasn't put all the pieces back together in his life. He is having more crippling flashbacks of how this all began. A high ranking CIA official is out to sell company secrets, holding talks with a prominent Guardian journalist. Suffice to say, deep cover teams are assigned to take him out. But Bourne would like to question him before they can, and hopefully learn the truth about himself. The structure of these movies is interesting. As they move forward, they actually go backwards in Bournes story. 1st movie - Last assignment. 2nd movie - 1st assignment. 3rd movie - How it all began. Again the action is superb, a hand to hand fight scene my personal highlight. But the script is just so clever and full of ideas and that elusive thing for most Hollywood scriptwriters - logic. Best movie trilogy of all time? It's certainly in with a shout.10/10
January 14th - Ghostbusters
A 14 hour shift on my first day back to work after a weeks holiday. Over 500 people served during those 14 hours. I was tired, and just glad to be home. I needed a pick me up, something easy to watch but damn enjoyable and worthwhile at the same time. Enter the perfect storm of Ghostbusters. This is a movie that is so revered because of it's 80's roots, and the perfect cast. If this was made today with state of the art effects and a cast of people like Seth Rogen, McLovin and Brett Ratner directing, it would be awful to behold. Luckily they got it perfect the first time and this timeless property should never have to be remade. Following three scientists who study the paranormal, they decide to go into business for themselves when the university they are working in cuts off their funding. Sensing this is a unique and lucrative market, they set themselves up as the Ghostbusters. Perfect timing too, as all the ghouls want to come out to play in New York City. Bill Murray of course, steals the show, but this is a collaborative effort with the script, direction and acting all just jiving to the letter. Altogether now - 'It's true your honour. This man has no dick.' Best putdown ever? May be hard to beat.10/10
And there it is - week 2 down, only 50 more + change to go! Next week I have The Inbetweeners movie, Warrior, Shame and X-Men on my slate.
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Until next time........
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