Any Given Sunday – 1999, Oliver Stone
It doesn’t need to be three hours long, but this is a good film with a good cast. Jamie Foxx plays Willie Beamen as though he was born to ball. Eyes peeled for a brief flash of Jesse from Saved by the Bell’s minge. Oliver Stones fictional films are way better than his biographies. I pray he never makes a film about his best mate Fidel Castro.
Beowulf – 2007, Robert Zemeckis
I was surprised it was given a 12 rating as it is overtly sexual. It was given a 15 rating in Germany, probably because of naked virtual Angelina Jolie. The animation is good but still not quite as perfect as the incredibly laborious motion capture technique involved in filming would suggest. And Ray Winstone is miscast in the lead. ‘I will kill you’re monsta, you black bawsterd!’ All that said, I still like and recommend it.
Harry Brown – 2009, Daniel Barber
Michael Cane goes all Charles Bronson on us and does his grim, inner city council estate version of ‘Deathwish’ Cane is the best thing in this film as the rest of the cast are a bit crap, particularly Plan B. Yes, that’s right; Plan B is in this film.
Fantastic Mr Fox – 2009, Wes Anderson
If you forget about Roald Dahl and remember that this is a Wes Anderson film, then you’ll be able to enjoy it. Thankfully it’s more like The Life Aquatic (ie a complete fantasy) and less like The Darjeeling Limited (which seems to straddle both fantasy and reality, and fails somewhat).
The Thing – 1982, John Carpenter
I watched this on Blue Ray, and as the dudes who they interviewed for the extra features say; those creatures weren’t just puppets and props, they were art. One day I’ll see this on the big screen, and then I can die happy.
Up – 2009, Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
It’s another very good Pixar film. Those guys will polish a story and a script until its perfect. But in this case it seems like they just couldn’t follow one idea through far enough to make a whole film of it. So rather than have a good first couple of acts and then let the ending slide (a la ‘You Don’t Mess With The Zohan’ and a thousand other comedies) the boys at Pixar just took two well sculpted scripts and stuck them together with a skit about talking dogs to cover the join. Still funny though.
JCVD – 2008, Mabrouk El Mechri
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Jean-Claude Van Damme and when he pours his heart out on screen he makes you love Jean-Claude Van Damme. The film has a beige, washed out look to it which almost works but they went a bit too far – it’s a common fault of shooting on digital, it makes colour adjustment in post production very easy, and often directors/editors over do it with the saturation. But that’s a minor rant on a film that’s well worth a watch and has an excellent soundtrack. I particularly liked the acoustic arrangement of Bowie’s ‘Modern Love’ by Marie Mazziotti that plays over the end credits.
Imagine if that primary school teacher you had who played the guitar was actually good, rather than shit.
Rocky – 1976, John G. Avlidsen
Vastly overrated, but without Rocky there is no Rocky III and no Rocky IV. No Eye of the Tiger and no Hearts on Fire. God bless you Sylvester.
Rocky II – 1979, Sylvester Stallone
Even though I watched it recently I still have trouble remembering what happens in this one apart from the rematch at the end...? Oh yeah, Adrian has Rocky’s baby and then seems less concerned about her husbands well being and sends him of to fight Apollo. ‘Win’
Rocky Balboa – 2006, Sylvester Stallone
Massive Rocky fan that I am, I was disappointed but not surprised to see Stallone veer from the formula that made Rocky III and Rocky IV so great: Boxing match/Training Montage/Boxing match. Nothing else is necessary, least of all the Rocky’s rants about the decline of society and the culture of victimhood.
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