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Skyline (2010)
Worth the wait, but leaves a sour taste
I'll try not to reveal too much about the plot. I had been awaiting the release of this film for a good many weeks since I first happened across its trailers. I'm pleased to say that it did not disappoint as there are too few films, in my taste, that leave me feeling so energised. Right up until the end, when the film enters into the supernatural environment and we break from what had been a familiar world of apartments, swimming pools and the outdoors, with excellent graphics, it's easy to get lost. All chatter in the cinema had quickly ceased and it had been a long time since I had noticed an audience so transfixed on the screen. Following the events of a vacationing New York couple in Los Angeles and their companions at the LA-based mate's apartment, we witness the arrival of extraterrestrial beings who syphon humans into their craft. The group holds out for as long as it's able, hiding in the apartment and eventually looking for an escape when it becomes apparent that the aliens are everywhere and are scouring every rock, presumably on the planet, for every last human being. Half way into the film, we realise what the purpose - to some degree - is that the aliens have for us, and this is very much a break from what I could have envisioned. The heroic couple eventually succumb to the aliens and are likewise abducted and treated the same way as everyone else not clever enough to find suitable hiding: perhaps aboard a ship at sea or deep under the ground. It's at this point that the film loses a lot of its believability. Well, as far as alien abduction on a planet-wide scale could be, and the graphics slip a bit in their awesomeness. Overall, definitely worth an hour and a half on one's behind (don't think that the relatively short duration means that the film's in any way lacking). I would liken the feel to a mix of The Matrix, Independence Day and Dawn of the Dead.
Cloverfield (2008)
Don't have preconceived ideas
I was expecting some sort of Godzilla 'after' September 11th thriller but I was WAY off. I'd even heard some bad reviews - again, cannot agree with them. I don't want to say anything of the adventure in the film, suffice to say that while watching it, one will undoubtedly put oneself in the action and will be thinking of one's own family and friends. It's not often that one sees people coming face to face with a fear such as this in film that isn't accompanied by music, different camera angles and other features of film that remove one from the reality that could be experienced. Graphics, movement and, of course, acting all contribute this one hell of a document... erm, film.
Saving Marriage (2006)
A treasure
I loved this documentary. Our people around the world are entering a new age of equality but there is still a struggle in securing more equality and retaining the gains that we have already made. This film covers that struggle in Massachusetts and documents the great efforts made by so many people in defending their right to be treated as valued and equal human beings. It's easy for an LGBT audience to be drawn into this and feel it personally. Told from a Queer perspective, the film makers have tried to incorporate all points of view in a fair and real way, showing those on both sides of the argument. It puts a human face on same-sex marriage, profiling several weddings and focussing too on some same-sex headed families. From high points when we see both lovely long-term and youthful couples exchanging vows and the election of a gay man to the Massachusetts Parliament, to low points where an elected official of that same government forthrightly denies historical injustices against LGBT people and contemporary realities of abuse, harassment, discrimination and worse, and finishing on the sad reality that bigotry still prevails in much of the American public, a bigotry which could strip same-sex couples of this right, I recommend that everyone with an opinion on same-sex marriage view this.
Kounandi (2004)
A charming and original piece
I cried after watching this. A dwarf girl in an African village, unwanted by her father and abandoned after he murders her step mother for adultery, she is offered sanctuary by Karim, a kindly farmer, with whom she builds a small house for herself on his land. A victim of intolerance in the village, she makes her living selling sweet cakes, made with her baking dish, the sole inheritance left by her birth mother. When Karim's ailing wife Awa returns from her time with a healer and rejects Kounandi, the story hits its bottom. Seeing how distraught Karim is about his wife's impending death, Kounandi, in a scene of magical realism, offers Awa her health, and ability to make sweet cakes, and by doing this sacrifices her life, thereby gaining the respect of the village that automatically ceases in its prejudice to her memory. Very quaint, original and far better than most crap on television.
¡Tintorera! (1977)
Worst Snuff Film Ever
If you want to see an array of beautiful sea creatures that no longer exist, by and large because they're butchered for no reason in this awful movie, then this film becomes a treasure of historical documentation. Otherwise, it's a plot less story about three and four way sexploits with the final few minutes dedicated to the premise of a shark horror flick. Unfortunately for me I had to sit through the whole thing as I had started it and it was too hot and windy to go outside. You do get ideas about how you'd like to have that much money so that you could live on a yacht without responsibility and the promise of toast after toast with your latest shag, but the continual slaughter of sharks, sea turtles and stingrays for a movie such as this leaves one filled with guilt.
Spanglish (2004)
Very disappointing
I had heard this movie hyped up so much that I was expecting a lot more than what was offered. One could be fooled by the brilliant acting, which it truly was, but the storyline went nowhere, left gaping holes, started on tangents that finished abruptly, and the ending was disgusting. You start with some character building for the Clasky children which is pointless as it takes you nowhere - why even comment on their son? His character does nothing. The implausibility of a woman living in the United States for 6 years that can't even understand 3 words of English also brings ruin to the film. It's a good laugh, but don't think below its surface.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Could have been funnier
This film scared the life out of me. I was so terrified that I was shaking for most of the film and walked out of the cinema literally exhausted. It wasn't until later that the experience was lost on me and I started laughing. Perhaps it would've been too comical had they incorporated into the first horrific scenes of people disintegrating a person speeding away hands blazing in a wheelchair to suddenly disappear 'poof' and have the wheelchair hooning along unoccupied, a crippled person on crutches hurrying away 'poof' to have the crutches fall over, or a cycle squad on tour moving through 'poof poof poof poof poof' and you're left with personless bicycles. Such wasted opportunities. I hope that the spoofers make such use when this film appears, no doubt, in Scary Movie 4.
The Piano (1993)
Just a correction.
To R-Mcharg, Harvey Keitel´s character was from Hull, in Yorkshire, not in Scotland. As I need to write a bit more to get my comments printed, I just want to say that the Piano was a great film and I saw it 3 times at the movies when it came out, which for a 15 year old was quite a lot I reckon, considering that it wasn´t Jurassic Park.
Bio-Dome (1996)
Bloody awful
This film is one of the worst that I've had to endure through. Pauly Shore's most painful offering to the best of my knowledge, every second irritates and annoys. This might be an attempt at American humour but it's not funny. What Kylie Minogue thought she'd get out of it is beyond me but it's a major blemish to her name, one she'd sooner forget. Pauly Shore and Stephen Baldwin are best friends from childhood. We are no doubt supposed to laugh at their non-sexual intimacy, toe nibbling and masturbatory viewing ways. Forsaken by their environmentalist girlfriends, they non-relatedly wind up in a Bio Dome project, the apex of years of planning and research, which they deliberately wind up destroying, first by smashing up butterfly cages, throwing around living fish and eating food reserves, then by throwing a huge party to win back the favour of their girlfriends. So unbelievable that it's funny? Nope, sorry but no. So, finally realise they've done wrong, they try hard in the remaining time of the project to put things right. This is probably the only part of the film with some entertainment merit value, but that's asking a lot.
If you have nothing else to do, are snowed or rained in, it's freezing cold or boiling hot outside, and there are no household chores, you are close to the circumstances required of watching this movie.
Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)
Was it meant to be this scary?
"Manos, the hands of fate" was made thanks to the people of El Paso. You see, they ran a competition in the town back in the 1960s. The competition was that anyone who has written a film script should write their name on a piece of paper. All the names were put into a hat - the stuff of legend for yes, indeed, this was Torgo's hat! - and a name would be drawn. The person whose name was drawn would have their film script made into a movie, and that name was Harold Warren. Alas, the greatness of this movie has been overshadowed by the Torgo curse. It is when one commits suicide after completing a movie of such acclaim. For shame El Paso!
Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale (1986)
A ground breaker
This film was an amazing event when it was released in New Zealand. Footrot Flats has for several decades been New Zealand's most popular and best loved journal cartoon strip. Murray Ball's characters are household names to millions of Kiwis around the world, and this film gave them living character, voices, movement. The film was celebrated immensely and rightly so as, made as it was with that unique NZ quality that comes with our movies, it had cartoons speaking with Kiwi accents that weren't forced or too Australian, NZ scenary, NZ themes that captured the rural environment of the day - everything about it was, and to many people no doubt still is, very familiar. The film has Dog - the real-life inspiration for whom died a few years back which received national media attention - saving Jess, his bitch, and starting a family, trying to keep Wall and his girlfriend Cheeky apart, and discovering the meaning of being alive, as well as the human menaces of his life living their simple existences. A must for all patriots of Aotearoa, anyone who's lived on or spent time on a farm out the back of some place here or there, or anyone who loves good quality animation.
Velvet Goldmine (1998)
A very bisexual movie!
Velvet Goldmine is an excellent movie whichever way you look at it. Of course, that does depend on whether or not you yourself can associate with the themes held therein: growing up queer in a British household, idol worship, following your dreams, reliving your childhood fantasies later on in life. This film is very bisexual - the main characters are all bi, and a lot of emphasis has been placed on the fact that they are actually bi, not gay. It's about time a main-stream movie did this. It's not to say that this lifestyle is an accurate portrayal of bi-life, but movies seldom are windows into the real world. None-the-less, it captures so much of the world that bisexuals see - the sexes are equal, life is colourful, things are seen from a very open-minded perspective, yet life is complicated, we're misunderstood, and are often rejected. This film is amazing! It is really only let down by the fact that the American scenes are so obviously filmed in Britain, and the accents could have been better for this portrayal too.
Braveheart (1995)
Horrible
The fact that Mel Gibson is in it might be enough to dissuade anyone from watching, but if you continue to watch, you're in for a nasty fright. Although against the best recommendations of British historians, millions of Americans still view this movie as accurate history. Thanks Mel - you've rewritten in 3 hours a nation's history that took thousands of years to form. Some strange facts about this fiction were that the English king actually spoke English, as did his soldiers, who themselves identified as English, when historically you're looking at a would-be further Norman conquest further into Britain. Also, it appears that many Americans, and now many other nationalities (thanks Mel) seem to think that Scotland and Britain are separate entities. If ever there is a Braveheart II, which portrays Scottish raids and invasions into pre-Norman Northumbria, Cumbria, Yorkshire, which shows how the Scots conquered the English city of Edinburgh and made it their capital, which awakens in 50 million Irish Americans a sense of their English heritage (hahaha), I'd watch it. Trouble is, Hollywood doesn't make those sorts of reality films as they're just too real. The English as victims? Perish the thought!
Mon Desir (1992)
Interesting ...
A very early 90's New Zealand style, which to the rest of the world will seem like a country on the verge of modernity, yet still stuck in a drab 50s-70s period. Neglected housewife, with a passion for washing dishes, discovers through the help of an anonymous tip off that her hubby's doing the naughty. To make matters worse, he's bought a dish washer, removing the need for her to indulge her passion. Throw in the dashing jogger neighbour - the late Kevin Smith - and you end up wiht pure Kiwi surreality.
Savage Play (1995)
Brilliant work of art
This was an amazing series. It encaptured greatly the colonial feel of New Zealand, and the early blending of two cultures as they start to inter-marry and form a new nation. Wonderfully moving performance by Rena Owen. The costumes and the sets were just fantastic.