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Tuesday 24 January 2012

The Artist


When I first saw the trailer for this movie I thought it was one of those nonsensical adverts about switching off your phone in the cinema. I was glad to learn I was way off as time seemed to have reversed and the age of the silent movie was upon us once more. This movie shows great character and reverts film lovers and maker alike back to the importance of the fundamentals.

Star of the movies George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is at his peak, being invited to all the latest parties and getting awards for his movies, he one day stumbles in to aspiring actress Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo). Though George is married the two of them blossom a flirtatiously harmless relationship, but all of that soon becomes insignificant when Georges boss and director of movies Al Zimmer, (John Goodman) tells him that the company have decided to jump on the bandwagon of making talkies. Movies where the actors speak and the audience can hear them on screen. Adamant not to change what he knows and insisting it's a phase George decides to go off on his own and keep the age of the silent movie alive. On the flip side and acting simultaneously with his fall away from the public eye, Peppy Miller is the new household name due to her number of leading roles in the talkie movies.

It a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and all without sound. The key to this movie is its score as it allows us as the audience to better relate with the characters emotions, to sympathise with the good guys, to feel anger at the bad, despair at the unfair and joy and laughter where it's due. There's not a lot more I can say about the movie should it feel like I am its personal audio description. Brilliant for us younger film watchers to now not only experience black and white movies but silent as well, and to the more aged to remember where it all began.

Sunday 22 January 2012

J. Edgar



A truly spectacular biographic story told using a talented ensemble of actors as the story of the rise of the FBI through J Edgar Hoover is untold.

The movie is told in non linear form, where the opening scenes show an aged J Edgar (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he dictates what we the audience assume to be a biography to a writer (Ed Westwick). We are then  transported to a much earlier time in Hoovers life and learn how he advances upwards in the ranks of the FBI and changed their work ethic for the good.

Being at the top doesn't leave a lot of time for socialising, not that Hoover minded, he was happy with the two women he trusted the most in his life. His mother Anna Marie (Judi Dench) who was his personal cheerleader as she always encouraged him and insisted he could do anything he wanted if he just put his mind to it. Also secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts) who after a few dates decided that they were better off as friends, that and if they were involved it would be a lot more conflicting for her to help him get rid of some of the unwanted baggage the job came with.

Though Hoover was doing a great job at the top on his own, he later adopts an assistant to help pick up any slack. Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), a law graduate who is only looking to be part of the bureau on a temporary basis, is the lucky individual and as time progresses it's undeniable they work like a well oiled machine together.

The story pitches back and forth between the past, the present and the continuation of the latter as we learn what it costs to be at the top and stay there as J Edgar Hoover out lasts five presidents in his position as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations from 1935 to 1972.

The movie does start off a little confusing and the use of a range of people Hoover has writing his biography also baffles me. And that we couldnt have seen more of one Ed Westwick. Other than that this movie has few faults and is ultimately a well told tale.


Wednesday 4 January 2012

Movies Watched in 2011

Alice in Wonderland
Sherlock Holmes
Post Grad
Great Expectations (1998)
Avatar
St Trinians 2
One Hour Photo
Planet of the Apes
Men Who Stare at Goats
Bandslam
The Informant
Wedding Daze
Up In The Air
Suburban Girl
Wild Hogs
Valentines Day
Youth in Revolt
When Harry met Sally
Down with Love
9
Soul Men
Sorority Row
Clash Of The Titans
How To Marry A Millionaire
Solomon Kane
I Am Number Four
Astro Boy
The Reader
Elektra Luxx
Repo Men
Avalon High
The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnasus
Textuality
Fighting
Limitless
Lets Dance
Night at the Museum 2
Anuvahood
Your Highness
Date Night
Prince Of Persia
Elizabeth
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Scre4m
4.3.2.1
The Notebook
Whip It!
Scream
When In Rome
Sream 2
Scream 3
Shutter
How To Train A Dragon
Eclipse
6 Degrees Of Separation
Rango
Gnomeo ans Juliet
X-Men: First Class
Fast Five
Cop Out
The Sorcerers Apprentice
Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Insidious
Killers
Wild Target
Funny Face
Kung Fu Panda
Dirt Harry
The Karate Kid
The Shawshank Redemption
Two For The Road
Taken
Charade
Legally Blonde
Romeo Must Die
Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure
Dude Where's My Car?
Shutter Island
Pulp Fiction
The Godfather II
Salt
The A-Team
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Sabrina
Armoured
The Stepfather
My Girlfriends Boyfriend
Gilda
The Last Airbender
IQ
Australia
Top Gun
The Beach
Kidulthood
Adulthood
Takers
Knight and Day
Friends With Benefits
Abduction
Melancholia
The Three Musketeers
Paranormal Activity 3
Real Steel
American Beauty
From Paris With Love
Madea's Big Happy Family
Vampires Suck
The Social Network
In Time
The Ides Of March
Immortals 3D
Flashdance
Iron Man 2
Another Earth
Arthur Christmas
Singin' In The Rain
Enemy Of State
The Grinch

Grand Total Being 118.
A lot worse than last year I am sad to say but on the other hand I am really broadening the horizons of what I am watching.

Monday 2 January 2012

Hugo


I can hardly think of a better way to start the New Year in film than by watching a Scorsese piece.

Recently orphaned Hugo Cabaret was the son of a clockmaker, his father (Jude Law) dies quite suddenly one day at work and the only thing that Hugo has left to hold on to from him is a broken automaton. His father found the machine in the attic of the the museum he worked at. Bent on fixing what he and his father started, on way or another Hugo knows that he will never truly have an answer unless he finds the wind up key the mechanism needs in order to fully function.

With no parents Hugo is left to a drunken uncle that runs the clocks at the station, when her one day doesn't comeback after a drunken night out Hugo continues his work. Seemingly easy enough, he has to do it around the Orphan hating station conductor Inspector Gustav (Sacha Baron Cohen). It's a lot for a young boy who has been put in an undeserving circumstance to handle alone; fixing what he and his father started, and trying to find the key to make it run all the whilst dancing around the Inspector. But what he uncovers is more than he and new friend Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) could have ever imagined

The only criticism I have is that though the film is meant to be set in Paris, no one was French, no signs were in French, in fact the only thing that did scream France was the glimpses of the Eiffel Tower we got to view every now and then. As well as this I thought the big mystery behind the adventure was a little to grown-up for a children's movie, though I may have found it it interesting I think the under 11s in the audience seemed a little disappointed considering its huge promise.