Merry Christmas!

I will be back in 2010 with reviews on a number of great new release fims, such as "The Lovely Bones", "Sherlock Holmes" and much more!

Til then...    Merry Christmas!

 

 

Zombieland

Zombieland MovieRevue

Zombieland stars Woody Harrelson the Hollywood hippie and environmentalist amongst other things not commonly linked with the average Hollywood movie star! Jessie Eisenberg also stars in this film as Woody's sidekick, "Columbus" (Jessie recently starred in another favourite of mine, the teen flick "Adventureland"). Young actress Abigail Breslin (best known for her performance as the cute youngster in "Little Miss Sunshine") also stars in the film.

The premise of this film is fairly simple and what you would expect from the typical Zombie movie, basically Zombie's have taken over the world and there are few humans left apart from our heroes Columbus, Woody Harrelson's brilliantly named "Tallahassee" and two girls who are Abigail Breslin's "Little Rock" and Emma Stone's "Wichita". The great thing about this film is the wit and humour used to tell the story. A great example of this wit is the running list of do's and dont's to survive in Zombieland as concocted by the main character, Columbus. His list includes thing's such as "alway's check the toilet's before entering" and my favourite and most poignant "enjoy the little thing's in life" (perhaps some words of wisdom for those who have suffered as a result of the global financial crisis, this could be their new motto). But the fun doesn't end there folk's, the best part of this film is the cameo performance by Mr "BM" himself. Now I'm not going to explain who "BM" is, for those of you who haven't guessed it can be a little surprise for you and a pleasant one at that.

Overall the film at first glance is your typical Zombie flick with the storyline revolving around "man" fighting Zombie's and a small dose of romance, however within this mix the director is able to add some extra spice in the form of clever humour and a fable for all about the importance of friend's as substitute family's when there is no-one else left on earth but yourselves (and the aforementioned Zombie's!)

I rate this as a definite for the movies and look forward to it's release on DVD, as I will certainly watch it again!  

Check out the Trailer on the IMBD movie website on the link below:

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi503382553/ 

Broken Embraces MovieRevue

Broken Embraces is the latest in a long line of films by the Spanish director, Pedro Almodovar.

Almodovar has been responsible for launching the careers of Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Javier Bardem (who won a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in: No country for old men).

As a director Almodovar has a penchant for casting his favourite actors (when available) for minor or major roles in his film's, which is why we see Penelope Cruz starring in this film.

In typical Almodovar style Broken Embraces is full of the requisite melodrama but it lacks the comedy usually present in most of his films. Broken Embraces see's Penelope Cruz playing "Lena", the mistress of a powerful business man Ernesto Martel. Bored with her life as mistress, Lena pursues a role in a new film and falls in love with the director "Mateo",  played by Lluis Homar. The film Broken Embrace is a film about a film being made and Almodovar cleverly references one of his earlier films, "Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown", as the film being produced and starring Penelope Cruz's character "Lena".

Much of the film is set in flash-backs with the now blind film director retelling the story of his romance with Lena to his friend's son "Diego", played by Tamar Novas (a new-comer to Spanish cinema). Henceforth Mateo the film director chooses to be known by his pseudonym, Harry Caine.

The film also references French actress "Jeanne Moreau" and other famous directors and films of her era.

This film will be liked by those who enjoy drama and romance in their films and who are also comfortable with reading subtititles (unless of course they are fluent in Spanish!)

I rate this film as one of my least favourite Almodovar films which certainly doesn't mean it was a bad one but I wish there had been more comedic moments amidst all the drama. I found the performances by Tamar Novas and his mother in the film, the actress Blanca Portillo very enjoyable.

Twilight: New Moon is it a little 'twee'?

Twilight: New Moon or 'Tweelight' (as I think it should have been named cos at times the action was a little 'twee' for me) focusses on the life of emo poster child Bella and her pale faced mate Edward, the vampire from the Cullen's clan who happen to reside in the same quaint town of Forks as young Bella does.

The angst and suffering portrayed by these two kids in the second installation of the Twilight series was a little difficult to bear combined with the screams of young teenagers in the cinema (with whom I had the pleasure of sharing company with) whenever the other big star of the series young Jacob the newly discovered werewold was to remove his shirt!

If anyone hasn't yet heard about the Twilight phenomenon I would find it hard to believe but anyhow I will give you a quick run down on the premise of the film. It's your typical teen flick full of jocks, the dark mysterious types and the girl that could be popular but chooses not to in the guises of werewolfs, vampires and vampire lovers!                                                                                                   



The first film in the series was slick and entertaining, particularly in the way that the vampires were able to showcase their super speed and ability to bound through space and time......however the second film seems to rely too heavily on the drama faced by Bella when her beloved vampire BF leaves town. It feels as though the majority of the film is spent with close-up's of Bella looking forlorn and deeply depressed because she can't live without her vampire BF, who has left Bella to protect her and allow her to lead a more normal life which clearly she isn't keen on pursuing!



The first film was certainly able to bring us a sense of fun clearly lacking from the second film and the arrival of the werewolves in this feature proves to be particulalry unspectacular, although my young teenage friends would surely disagree with me! The film's finale also results in a typical Hollywood ending which seems particularly unbeliveable considering the age of the characters..but I will leave it at that as I don't want to spoil the ending for you.



So is it worth the trip to the cinema or the $7 to hire in the comfort of your home, I think I would go with the latter!