District 9 Review

District 9 was one of those movies that came out of nowhere for me. I didn’t look at any trailers, I didn’t investigate any of the hype that was surrounding the movie, and in the end I was pleasantly surprised by one of my favourite movies for 2009.

The film follows the story of Wikus van de Merwe, who is put in charge of evicting Aliens from a government run refugee camp in Johannesberg to another one south of the city.

The film is filmed like a documentary, with interviews, surveilance camera footage and retrospectives. The live action sequences are filmed on the ground as if a camera man is following the action. It can be compared to Cloverfield, but I found it was executed in a far more effective and engaging way.

The big thing for me was that the CGI wasn’t overdone. Obviously the “prawns” were fake, but they weren’t overstated and really blended in with the picture. You didn’t sit there thinking that they were simply fake CGI, infact you could find yourself relating to them.

The film obviously has ties to the ghetto situation in South Africa, the ever increasing worry of Private Military Corporations, and manages to touch on these issue in a compelling way, without bringing an obvious political agenda with it.

While it did run a little long, District 9 is easily the most original, and the best film I have seen in 2009, except of course Inglorious Basterds

OVERALL 9/10

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

Michael Bay brought us one of the biggest movies, both at the box office and pure scale with Transformers back in 2007. It was a true showcase of modern day CGI, not overdone featuring a fun and action packed adventure. Two years later we see the release of the sequel, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen but can Bay make another compelling movie with the Autobots and Decepticons?

I found Revenge of the Fallen to be a mixed bag. Some parts of the film were a vast improvement and really fleshed out the characters, especially Sam’s parents who really provided some of the best humor of the movie. New character Leo really stood out on screen, and even managed to steal some of the limelight from LaBeouf.

On the other hand one thing that really let the film down in my opinion was just how over the top it really was. I know many of you are sitting there thinking “how can Transformers be anything BUT over the top?” but during the first film, I never once thought to myself “wow, the Transformers look fake”. This time round there is simply TOO many transformers, hell EVERYTHING becomes a transformer in this film. Instead of having a compelling story with meticulously choreographed action scenes, this is just a blur of close up metal shots and a bunch of yelling. A lot of the time you will find yourself not even knowing who is who, and ultimately it lets the movie down.

The story is ok, Sam discovers that a sliver of the All-Spark has been residing in one of his jumpers, and upon touching it he gains the knowledge that the cube contained. The Decepticon leader plans a full scale assault on Earth and resurrects Megatron to find Sam and gain his knowledge, which will lead them to a device buried on Earth thousands of years ago. This device was built to harvest our sun, so the Decepticons can have the lifeforce to keep their race alive.

It’s a strong enough story to keep it going, with a cast that provides a lot of comedy, and manages to keep you on the edge of your seat for a portion of the movie.

The movie has a long run time, 147 minutes. I’m all for long running movies, but I constantly found myself wondering WHEN this film was going to end. It just never wound up and ran way too long.

Overall if you are a fan of the first movie you will enjoy this, but ultimately it’s just missing some of that energy that made the first movie so great.

6/10

Ram Jam For The Count

After hearing the buzz surrounding Mickey Rourke’s latest movie The Wrestler I was dubious. Often indie flicks will get rave reviews, and more often than not I will walk out of the cinema, or leave my couch stumped as to why. No it’s not because I don’t understand movies, I love my movies and I love the really weird and out there ones, but often a buzz ends up killing a movie for me. The Wrestler was an exception to this rule.

Rourke brings a surreal aura to the screen as he fills the role of Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a veteran wrestler from the 80’s clinging onto his former glory and still battling it out in the independant wrestling arena.

The movie is gritty and isn’t afraid to show the “acting” portion of “Sports Entertainment” but manages to show that there is still a huge physical demand of Wrestlers, that injuries are common, and even goes as far as to show how some of the “tricks” are done.

The movie take a no frills approach, nothing is over dramatized which makes this film feel very, very real. Rourke’s amazing performance is backed up by equally amazing performances from Marisa Tomei as stripper slash mum Cassidy, and Evan Rachel Wood as Stephanie, Randy’s estranged daughter.

If you get a chance to see this limited release movie in the cinema make sure you do, it’s easily one of the best movies I’ve come across in the last 12 months. Don’t let the buzz keep you away like I did, The Wrestler is well worth going through a No Holds Barred Cage Match to catch a glimpse at a world, often hidden behind smoke and mirrors

Indiana Jones in Star Wars?

After countless numbers of rumours, script changes and felt tip fedora’s, Indiana Jones and the Kindom of the Crystal Skull is finally on screens across the globe. Does it live up to the expectations of fans or does it fall below the line?

The movie is set in the 50’s and right from the opening scene it does feel like a real Indy Jones flick, and I suspect that this part was done with just Spielberg.

But then here comes this rediculous alien plotline and this most certainly is where George Lucas steps in. It’s almost as if Spielberg decided that “Alien’s in ET Worked, so why won’t it work in this?” and Lucas said “well actually Steven, I’ve got some left over footage from this shit prequel Star Wars trilogy, we can just change the characters and call it Indy Jones“.

I’m sorry, Indy is all about adventures, artifacts, women and stunts. Well stunts weren’t short in this movie, but they were all the same.

Indy jumps from a truck to a jeep, Indy gets pulled from a bike into a car, punches the bad guys and gets back on the bike, Indy jumps from car to truck to car to truck to boat. I GET THE IDEA HE CAN JUMP FROM CAR TO CAR.

He hardly uses his whip, he hardly uses his gun, in fact he hardly has any meaningful relationships with characters.

One thing that always was great about the indy films was the chemistry between Harrison Ford and his supporting cast. Well this time round the movie is just full of characters that you really couldn’t give a shit about. You have a woman from the Soviet Union who has no real agenda trying to make Indy find the Crystal Skull, Indy’s collegue from the school, his sidekick Mutt and a double crossing agent guy who is fat with a british accent. When the story gets weak they just seem to mention an old character like Indy’s dad, Marcus Brody or they bring back Marion Ravenwood for a reunion and make up a totally transparrent story of their failed relationship.

It’s bloody boring as is the dialouge, in fact Harrison Ford seems to be the only one who has any wit about him, with interesting things to say and a fantastic performance while the rest of the cast lets him down.

John Hurt puts in a damn good role but once agian has only about 5 minutes worth of dialogue.

Action sequences are great but all in all the Crystal Skull will dissapoint most, it was solid but nothing outstanding and the whole Alien plot just ruined it for me

5/10

Tarantino’s Career Death Proof?

While not a new movie, I thought it was time to check out Grindhouse, a two movie production with Rodriguez and Tarantino that was released last year. Rodriguez released Planet Terror while Tarantino released Death Proof.

I’ll say it now, I’m a self confessed Tarantino fan, I own every movie he’s ever released, and I was quite excited to see him redeem himself after the Kill Bill series (I personally did not think much of them). Well now I believe that if Tarantino wrapped up a steaming turd in tin foil he could sell them as earrings and still have critics and fans saying how fantastic they were, and that’s the feeling I get with Death Proof.

Annoying characters plague the movie, drab dialogue that doesn’t have any memorable moments like his earlier work like Jackie Brown or Resovoir Dogs, and a story so thin that I think a game of Pac Man has more of a story.

Kurt Russell plays Stuntman Mike, who basically drives around in his big black car, stalking and murder females. The story follows two groups of females that have altercations with Stuntman Mike. Seriously, that is the whole story.

Dissapointing, and while featuring the trademark Tarantino qualities found in all of his films, apart from some sexy cars, this movie in my opinion is terrible.

As a Tarantino fan, I am shattered

3/10 

Blu-Ray To Win The War? Part 2

Quite hillarious how a few days after I write my piece on Blu-Ray winning the HD War, that Warner Bros announce moving across to Blu Ray exclusive, and HD-DVD cancelling their CES Conference! This is definately a HUGE blow to the format, and sure signals the end of HD-DVD in 2008

With only two studios backing HD-DVD exclusively (Universal and Paramount) I think we will see them jump from this sinking ship early this year

So perhaps a Blu-Ray Xbox in the future is not such an impossible dream after all

Blu-Ray To Win The War?

It seems like the war being raged between Blu Ray and HD has seemed to quieten down, and maybe it’s because HD is off in a dark corner slowly and peacefully dying?

Everywhere I got lately there is Blu Ray advertised. All Sanity stores have now started stocking blu ray movies, as have Target, Big W and EB Games, and Video Ezy stores nation wide have Sony Bravia screens with Sony PS3 displays and Blu Ray Movies for sale, but where is the same exposure for HD-DVD?

I went to JB Hi-Fi in the city to purchase a HD Drive for my Xbox 360 and some movies, and when I got there they had 21 titles, and only 102 HD-DVD movies in stock. I looked at the other shelf where Blu Ray was sitting and there was over 40 titles and just over 280 movies in stock. I said casually to a salesman who was helping me out “HD must be selling heaps this christmas” to which he laughed and said “we can’t seem to give these away, we’ve actually stopped ordering them”. The blu-ray titles were selling like hotcakes, and ultimately I put down my HD purchase and just bought $250 worth of surround sound and blu ray movies

This seemed to be the trend in every store I’ve gone into since, and my blu ray collection is growing at a steady rate. With the new Macbook Pro rumoured to have Blu Ray drives, it seems that HD may have finally lost the war

Will Smith A Legend?

 There is no denying that Will Smith throws in a heartfelt, believable and surprising performance in Francis Lawrence’s new movie I Am Legend

The basic outline is that a scientist creates a vaccine with a genetically modified strain of the Measles virus that attacks Cancer in paitents, and the world is praising her efforts. Then the movie comes in 3 years later and we a shown the streets of New York City with abandoned cars, overgrown streets and total silence. This is a powerful vision, and sets the tone for the movie.

Will Smith plays the role of Robert Neville, a army colonol who is a virologist, who is the last human alive in New York City, and possibly the world. We follow the story of Robert who goes to the docks everyday at noon hoping that a survivor will come, catching animals and Nightstalkers to complete testing in his lab where he is working on a cure. It’s interesting how even in this horrible dystopian New York City that Robert still has a routine. Up at sunrise, works out, goes to the video store and gets himself a new DVD everyday, off to the docks and then back home before Sundown.

 The mutated humans left from the virus attack are known as Nightstalkers, and are illergic to UV light just like Vampires. These nightstalkers do looks like some nasty bad guys, but don’t have much of a brain left, taken over by the hunger.

Will Smith throws in a emotional performance, which has it’s interesting points. His relationship with his dog is heart warming, which is his last family member and friend in the world left. Yet he also manages to create some new friends in the way of manniquins, which he sets up outside the video store and inside, and talks to as if he speaks to them every day. The reason he has done this would be to deal with his lonliness, his fear, and his longing for someone to talk to. The importance of this is shown in the scene after Sam (his dog) dies, and he is in the store in where he says to the manniquin “I promised my friend I’d say hello to you today….so hello……….please say hello to me…………please say hello to me……….please say hello to me” as tears are streaming down his face. It just is such a powerful part of the movie where Will truly shines, showing that he can’t live without his dog, his best friend

I’m not going to spoil anymore from the movie, but I will just say the ending didn’t sit right for me. I expected a little more, not to say that this ending wasn’t expected. In the end I Am Legend is a decent movie, but isn’t going to win Oscars. All in all it’s definately worth a viewing, and I’m probably going to buy it on Blu Ray when it’s released

7/10