Change Your Image
caroline-85
i'm not on here to argue or squabble with anyone... so i won't be attacking someone for their individual taste or responding to someones quote with "i though that was rubbish etc"
i'm too old and ugly for all that nonesense.. i'm here to discuss films, to leave my opinion and thats all... i find it fascinating to peruse the discussion boards after seeing a film to see how others view it..and often discover something else about the film.
as they say many minds make best brain stew.. err or something like that ?
Reviews
The Night Listener (2006)
nothing like the sixth sense
i'm very relieved i didn't go to see this in the cinema, as i was so disappointed in the weak ending.. i rented it out last weekend, i always love robin williams and toni collette, good strong actors both of them....
on the DVD cover it is hailed as the new sixth sense, which got my attention, and the outline sounded interesting...and the film starts well, drew me in, i was looking forward to a brilliant conclusion... errr where was the sixth sense type shock factor.. once we finally meet the very disturbed donna character its obvious that things are not as they should be.. she reminded me of annie wilkes from misery, just one step away from total lunacy..
as soon as he tracked her down the ending was sold, and we had doubts anyway from early on when the boyfriend picks up on the voice similarity...
the film had great character development and brilliant acting so that why i give it 5/10 but otherwise the WOW factor i was expecting from a sixth sense twist did not materialise.. very disappointing...
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
superb film
well they pulled it off again....pirates 2, dead mans chest is excellent.... the scenes on cannibal island were hilarious, only Johnny Depp could make the act of simply running into a 'burst out laughing' moment...
there is also very funny scenes with the crew and a giant round cage.. it was great to see other familiar faces, even that darned monkey! the crew of the flying Dutchman were horrific, worse than the skeleton crew of the black pearl... they were like something alien artist geiger would have dreamed up. so i wouldn't say ALL children will like certain parts..
i thought all the acting was good...johnny Dept outstanding again...this role was surely made for him.. or he made it his own.... but the power seems to have shifted in favour of Elizabeth... when oh my god he is betrayed by a kiss....
there were a couple of things i'm not sure about... like how come the monkey stayed immortal, when the others didn't... and when will turner walks out of the sea after having to swim to shore to locate jack, he is almost dry.. but still does not stop me from awarding 10/10.
i should also add that dead mans chest is not a stand alone film like the curse of the black pearl... we are left at rather a cliffhanger moment, and will have to wait until April 2007 to see what happens next...
some people have been critical of the surprise ending, but i'm sure more explanations will come, and we will understand all in the end... this is the best movie of the year...
Hostel (2005)
life is cheap
SPOILERS i think the real punch for me was the fact that this kind of organised sadist rings could be reality..... this is the horror twist... never mind the gore and special effects.. we've seen all that before... and the special effects weren't the best i've seen...
i thought the opening chapters where we get to know the characters were OK.. it kind of reminded me of THE BEACH in that they have to search for this wonderful paradise type place where the girls throw themselves at any Americans.... but they weren't doing too badly in amsterdam either... so with their greedy lustful natures aroused they follow up the trail given by the dutch man....
to start off i thought the more reserved man would be the surviver as he didn't have the same zeal for skirt chasing as his friends.. he seemed the more decent... but he ends up as the failed surgeons plaything, and the tortured man who had failed in his childhood to save a drowning girl, was the one to survive and try to save the Chinese girl... who else would have gone back in??? another film i compared it to was MY LITTLE EYE ... in that the poor suckers were at the mercy of a highly organised group..... who paid to watch the housemates demise.. one by one.. only in hostel the paying sadists get to do the torturing, raping and killing themselves.. all for the right price.. Americans being the most expensive...can't figure out why that is though??? the film did wimp out a bit towards the end.. got a bit cheesy.. i mean what are the chances that when hes escaping in the car, he sees an opportunity to mow down, not only the two girls who seduced and drugged them, but the sly dutch man who sent them there in the first place....admit it was a satisfying moment though..
i'd have liked to see what happens next... how did he blow the whistle on them etc.. i mean hes back from backpacking minus some fingers and best friend..but someones i spoke to thinks they might do a sequel... i like to see closure...
Forest of the Damned (2005)
diabolical movie... you have warned
oh god where to begin......bad acting....characters you just don't care about... are they American or British... they seem to think they are in America, because where else is this enormous forest in the midlands...
one big fault... they are driving all night through these woods... unless they are going around and around they'd have been in Scotland come the morning.. when the whiny one knocks the poor wandering woman over....
and they're mobiles don't work.. so what do they do... split up of course, make it easier to be picked off... so three go looking for a house that might be there in the middle of nowhere and two stay behind to 'care' for the unconscious woman... so what do they do, rather than make her comfortable, cushion her head, cover her up or even move her off the blooming road they just leave her lying on the hard road while they go and make a fire 100 yrds away....and all the time they have a camper van they could put her in...
and onto the horny angels that are supposed to have desired human kind so much that they were ejected from heaven to live amongst us...so what do they do? embark on sexual relations with any men they encounter?.........no they bite huge chunks out of them and rip their heads off... i think they are missing the point...
these are not gorgeous sexually deprived former angels they are cannabalistic vampires... and as for tom savini saying how breath takingly beautiful they are....well those gals have good bodies but nothing special in the face dept. the lead role was far more pretty than these so called irresistible sirens...
rubbish film waste of £2.30 from my local library...
Wolf Creek (2005)
frustrated?...i could have screamed
well i'd heard the hype and we had to see for ourselves.. my feelings on this film are pretty mixed....yes it did horrify me.. it was plainly over the top gratuitous violence mainly aimed at sexually abusing young women, as they were his true targets...
the men were that annoying nuisance that the Aussie looney saved his lingering filthy looks for, and rather than take the trouble to abuse them himself.. left them strung up as meat for his ravenous pit bulls.. don't they have eucanuba in Australia?? sorry glib joke there thought the film was atmospheric and well filmed.. liked the casual acting.. and i really hoped that all three adventurers would get away... seems really topical since a young girl from my home town was murdered while travelling in thailand just recently... and the chilling fact that 30.000 people go missing in Australia each year..90% will turn up safe but that 10% is still chilling sobering numbers...this film should serve as a warning to back packers travelling abroad if nothing else...
anyway i digress.....the villain of the film was so believable and spooked me because darned if i haven't had encounters with similar crazy people..you know in the middle of a conversation when it suddenly dawns on you that the person is absolutely nuts.. hairs on your neck stick up etc...
the campfire scene is excruciating as his madness and violent leanings show through more and more... and then the awful chilling silence look at ben... i'd be gone by then folks...
but then they all lie down and go to sleep...unbelievable.. i thought, until i realised they had been drugged...because there was NO WAY in gods sweet earth that i would have closed my eyes around that guy!!! moving on i was cursing at the TV when the girl just bashes him on his back with the gun...dialogue in my living room at that time went something like this.....KILL HIM....BASH HIS HEAD WITH A BRICK...FIND HIS KNIFE AND CUT HIS HEAD OFF..DO NOT LEAVE THAT GARAGE UNTIL HE IS DISMEMBERED....i mean look about.. there is a dead womans body tacked to the wall.. your best friend has been raped and tortured by him...this is an absolute beast that should be culled for the good of man kind... i wouldn't stop until i could throw his head 100 yards...
but no...she leaves him intact and ready to butcher and destroy them....and why didn't she roll his car down the cliff too.. it might have fallen on him...but failing that it would have slowed him down...
the scene in the car when hes in the back seat...didn't i see that in house of wax when Paris hilton meets her ending??? again how did he know which car to hide in....
and finally if it is based on a true story...we can discount everything that happened to the girls anyway as all ben knew was waking up hanging on nails in a shed.. no doubt something awful did befall them, but it was all supposition and gory poetic licence in truth...made up to sell the movie....
although i thought it was a good gory horror movie.. it was also very disturbing...i certainly don't crave it in my collection.. but to the movie makers they achieved what they set out to do....a truly horrific horror movie...
The Island (2005)
wow.. fantastic conception
its not often i give a film 10/10...but i feel i have to after just viewing the island.. i hadn't heard anything about this film, we were planning to go see stealth, but after seeing the comments about it decided to wait until DVD... saw that the island was just released today, we like ewan mc gregor so took a gamble on it..and very glad we did...
maybe not an ideal film for all ages, i can see some youngsters losing interest...but never mind them.... this is an ingenious concept, very thought provoking...makes you wonder if something like this is so very far away... could it be happening now?? some remote area in nevada??? i immediately saw the logans run connection...logans run is a film i've always loved.. this fooling of the masses, government/big brother intrigue..intense stuff. mcgregor and johanssen are both excellent as is sean bean who seems reasonable at first, but we soon see him morph into a diabolical baddie, a man with no conscience...you really root for him to die as painfully as possible.
fantastic action...great actors, big budget and a worryingly possible black market in body organs on a huge scale.....best film for me in some time only the descent comes close.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
yep i liked it.
i had heard the comment that johnny depp resembles michael jackson in this film even down to the squeaky voice.....and it did seem evedent on our 1st encounter with wonka...but it quickly subsides and depp takes the character, where he wants to...
not having seen the original i have nothing to compare to which may be a good thing... i enjoyed the obvious hallmarks of tim burton see the pumpkins.. he always has pumpkins in his films.... the darkside and the dreadful poverty of the buckets, and of course the overriding moral issues of loyalty and love for which no amount of money or chocolate can buy....enjoyable, entertaining, colourful and slightly sinister the way wonka so easily allows the brats to become croppers in their various ways.....poetic justice.
The Descent (2005)
far superior to creep
i hadn't heard anything about this film...no big movie build up...but thought i would take a chance..... glad i did... even before the underground nasties begin to show up and yes they do resemble the creep creature the film was fraught with tension just by relying on the obvious claustrophobic fears we can have....
crawling through tiny spaces and we just knew things were going to go terribly wrong... there are tensions in the group and turns out the organiser has tricked them into exploring an unchartered deep cave system rather than the one complete with guide book...so no rescue team.
i won't spoil the ending... its clever and shocking all the way through and a cast of mainly British actresses, all of whom deliver a great performance...
we were very impressed with this film...go see it...but it might put you off pot holing.
Blade: Trinity (2004)
a bad apple
we just saw blade trinity tonight...we loved blade 1 and 2 and had our doubts about this latest due to different director. sadly this film is the turkey of the three. maybe as a stand alone film we'd like it more, but compared to the first two it is sadly lacking. was there a tight budget for blades clothes? he just didn't look as good, and as for his boots (as seen in close up when stepping from car) any average joe is seen wearing them... gone are the mega tuff biker type boots. wesley snipes is always good though, its such a shame that the company didn't insist on waiting for del toro to complete the trilogy. this film also seems to have been influenced by the matrix, had the same slickness to it that we didn't feel belonged to the blade films. seems as though the costume dept might have shared matrix designs too. there is maybe a bit too much attempt at humour.. the one guy is a regular comedian as he's getting his head pounded for the umpteenth time. good effects, mostly good acting...just not a satisfying tribute to the 1st and 2nd. anyway this is our view on this film my partner says i'm generous giving it 4 he gives it 0...hes very upset over it, a big blade fan.