True Grit (1969)

The original True Grit saw John Wayne win an Oscar for his performance. This film sees 'The Duke' help a little girl seek revenge on the person who killed her father. I have got the 2010 remake on my to watch list and to be honest I hope its better than this film. There is a fair amount to like in this film but for me the main problem is John Wayne. In a Wayne vs Eastwood battle, I reckon Clint would walk it.

The story is fairly good but it lacks a killer punch. I'm told that Wayne did better films and hopefully they will turn up because on this form I cant quite figure out how Wayne has reached the level of popularity that he has. Elsewhere in the film there was a nice performance from Dennis Hopper and Robert Duvall.

District 9 (2009)

Disrict 9 comes from producer Peter Jackson though how much of his creativity went into this film is unknown. It sees an alien spaceship hovering over Johannesburg. The story is about how these aliens have set up home in District 9 and are in the process of being evicted but the guy leading this gets infected and the story then moves onto his transformation from human to alien.

I liked this film a lot. It has some flaws such as dragging in the early stages and the moment where the guy gets the liquid all over his face you just think he's a tool and deserves everything he gets. That said the film does pick up from this moment. The final part of this film is very well done as you think that the father alien is going to be left behind instead of the human whereas its the other way around. I liked the idea that he became an alien and they showed that he had left the flower for his wife/girlfriend by showing him making a flower thus leaving us in no doubt that he had mutated.

I think that there should be a District 9 2 (or District 10 maybe) because there is something about this film that like Monsters is very fresh and quite different from what we have seen in previous alien movies.

J Edgar (2012)

I have heard mixed things about this film which tells the life of J Edgar Hoover who was the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Leonardo Di Caprio plays Hoover and this film is directed by Clint Eastwood. This story does a lot to try and be fair to J Edgar, the problem is that at the end of it there was no clear opinion that we are suppose to take away from it. The performance of Di Caprio is quite good and like Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, the performance is better than the film.

Another problem that I had with the film was the prosthetics. In an attempt to make Di Caprio and Hammer look older, they have to appear older and it just doesnt work for me. It is better on Di Caprio than Hammer but neither could be considered a success. That said it was a better film than I was expecting and I dont know what the exact running time was but at no point did it drag. The performances from Di Caprio and Hammer were solid and it was nice to see Judi Dench and was happy that she got more than a fleeting appearance like she did in Pirate 4.

J Edgar is not a bad film but I was hoping for something a bit more from it. I will be getting it when it comes out on DVD.

It's A Wonderful Life (1946)

It’s A Wonderful Life is considered to be one of the greatest films. It didn’t do well at the box office at the time but as it usually turns out, just because it didn’t do well at the box office doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a greater life on VHS or DVD. This is the earliest film in the ’52 in 2012’ list but whilst others are wax lyrical about it, I have to admit that I’m not so hot on it. The main problem for me is that they spend way too long getting to the part where Bailey (Stewart) is about to commit suicide. I also think that it doesn’t try hard enough to convince Bailey he has a purpose and no sooner has he seen this part of the world then he realises his mistake and comes back. On the plus side I did find that moment when he comes back to the end of the film and several other scenes to be very interesting and I cant deny that I found him touching. Despite being a few weeks past Christmas, it still struck a cord.

I haven’t seen many films with James Stewart in but I thought he was the best thing about this. He steals several scenes and does a good job in showing us what a nice character Bailey is. I also thought that Donna Reed was a suitable leading lady, just doing enough to be noticeable but not in the way of Stewart.

It’s A Wonderful Life is a good film. I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest film ever but there are somethings in it that are impossible to dislike.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

The second Sherlock film is better than the first one even though I do like it. This film has Moriaty and the more importantly it has Stephen Fry in it. The story follows the same sort of format as the first but what we have is the infamous Moriaty. I have to be honest and say that I'm not a massive fan of this character because I just think that the character is slightly unmenacing. However this doesn’t detract from one of the best scenes in the film where Moriaty and Holmes are playing Chess whilst all the action is going on before both going over the balcony. Considering I had just seen the same thing on TV, I felt that Richie did a better job.

Robert Downey Jr continues to be very good as Sherlock. I still cant figure out who is better, Downey or Benedict Cumberbatch. Whilst I try and figure that one out everytime that he is on screen the film is exciting. Jude Law is a curious individual. I still don’t rate him highly as an actor but as Watson he is tolerable but I think he is the weaker one out of the pair.

Another Guy Richie film that is quite good is not something that I would expect to say. My friends don’t think that this is better than the first but I completely disagree. I hope that there is a third one because there is potential for this to turn out to be a very good franchise.

Sherlock Holmes (2009)

As I get ready to watch the second Sherlock Holmes film, I thought now would be the best time to watch the first film. I was quite worried that a film by Guy Richie would descend into guys and geezer stuff like most of the drivel he has directed over the years. I also was worried with Jude Law because I find him rather annoying and find him a bit soppy. I'm also not a massive fan of Robert Downey Jr so this film has all the trappings of a terrible film.

To be honest, this film is actually quite good. Visually it beautiful as several scenes of London are on show including the scenes on the unbuilt Tower Bridge. The theme of the film was dealing with an apparent man who could not die (Strong) but it was all a set up. Downey Jr was very good as Holmes and compared to Benedict Cumberbatch he isnt as good as the TV version but still good. Law is bearable in this film but to be honest I think he is so wet that it takes a lot to get me to like him but I was perfectly happy to watch him in this.

Sherlock Holmes is a very good film and Guy Richie has directed a very good film that moves along at a fast pace, has a good story and also looks fantastic. SH2 is out now and I am looking forward to see it.

The Amityville Haunting (2011)

I have never seen the Amityville films, either the 1979 version or the 2005 Michael Bay hash-job. It was a surprise then that we sat down to watch this ‘found footage’ film which has about as much terror in it as an episode of Pingu. The film starts off with this group of annoying teenagers who break into the house and start getting ‘friendly’ with each other before something happens to them.

Fast forward and a family moves in and the strange things happen. Every so often there would be a strange figure that would appear for a second and whilst the story moves on the dad goes extremely crazy. He refuses to ask his annoying son who keeps asking questions and doesn’t go anywhere without his camcorder. After a while the family gets killed in various ways but the little girl who has befriended a ghost. The problem is that due to the dads performance it has gone from being a horror film to a comedy because he just goes totally OTT in a way which is distracting. Once it starts going into Paranormal Activity territory I just found myself starting to lose patience with it.

At the end of the film I just felt that if I was rating it out of 10 then it would be 5 and that is being generous. The acting is borderline poor and its rare that a film has so many annoying characters but this film does.

The Iron Lady (2012)

Doing a film about one of the most controversial prime ministers ever was always going to be a film that was going to cause issues. I went to see this film not really knowing what to expect. Meryl Streep’s performance has been heavily praised and the its one of the rare things where the voice and the look of Thatcher is pretty much spot on. When you watch Nixon with Anthony Hopkins the voice might not be there but there is something about his performance which makes you think Nixon. In The Iron Lady what we have are three stages of the former Prime Minister but the most notable is the first one we meet Thatcher she has managed to give her security the slip to buy milk. All the scenes where she is talking to the hallucination of her late husband was very sad and I felt at times uncomfortable watching it.

The story involves a large amount of flashbacks, starting when she is working at her fathers shop moving onto the point where she is elected to parliament and some of the events which occurred during her premiership that caused to her to be the figure that she became to be. I think that when I went into the screening I was thinking that events like the Falklands and the Poll Tax Riots would be given more of a important part of the story that it ultimately did. The one part of the film that I did find problematic was when that throughout the film she is meant to be suffering from dementia (which she really has although its not mentioned by name) and yet all she does is decide to get rid of Dennis’ stuff and she is better. I thought that wasn’t believable and was a bit of a duff way to end the film. Streep’s performance is brilliant and I wouldn’t be surprised if she receives significant award recognition. Jim Broadbent does well as Dennis and he does add some slight comedy relief. I say slight because after the initial laugh I remember that he is an hallucination but its still a good performance. Olivia Colman looks odd as Carol Thatcher but her performance is still very dignified and subtle.

The Iron Lady is an odd film but the performances are good enough to enjoy and whether you agree that they portray Thatcher as a good person or bad what’s important is this film a brave attempt to tell a story about one of the most powerful people in the country and how fragile they have become.

Airplane (1980)

As it is 2012 I have decided to watch 52 films that I have never ever seen. They are going to range from 1946 until 2011. The films for the club consist of 7 Golden Globes, 6 Academy Awards and a Single BAFTA.

I'm afraid to say that I have never seen Airplane. I had seen it on those best of... sort of shows but never sat through it. The story is about a plane that hasnt got a pilot. Basically thats it because this isnt a film that is defined by it's plot but more by the jokes. Normally in the film club we have a rule that there shouldnt be any gory horror or comedies. On this one occasion we have made an exception.

This film has so many funny jokes that it would be impossible to list them all because there is a chance that I have missed some. It’s one of those films that you could watch time and time again and there would still be some jokes that have been missed.

Airplane is a great film and a great way to start of 2012

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)

Still on a high after watching MI3, I went to the cinema to watch the latest MI film. This is the best of the MI films. The story is about trying to effectively stop a war between America and Russia (ah that old chestnut). In between all that were some impressive action scenes which do make Bond look a little silly.

Simon Pegg was really funny in this film and actually Tom Cruise wasn’t to bad either. His career seemed to be a bit unstable with such films as Knight and Day and that Valyrike film. However with MI3 and MI4 it seems he is back on familiar and more stable ground. The film benefits from some great locations filming especially in Dubai and the sand storm part was my favourite bit. Tad convenient that the storm ended when the bad guy got away.

The final scene where they we see the wife from the third film seemed to be the only bad thing in the film. Ok it was probably needed to include the fact that the wife wasn’t dead as we had been told but to be honest the film should have ended with Cruise walking into the mist like he did.

A fifth film is in the works which is no surprise.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

It had been about 10 years since the last Apes film which was directed by Tim Burton was wasn’t a completed success. Partly due to the fact that Mark Wahlberg was great and the decision to cast Estella Warren was also a bad call. The only good thing to come from that film was the very final scene with the Abraham Lincoln statue with a chimps face. Fast forward and what we have here is a far more impressive Apes film which is effectively a reboot of the franchise. James Franco plays Will Rodman who is trying to find a cure for Alzheimer’s which his dad (John Lithgow) is suffering from.

The story is highly enjoyable, mostly because of the apes themselves which is helped by the impressive CGI. Andy Serkis was again involved in creating the human characteristics of the apes and deserves much praise. The story has some very good action sequences including the Golden Gate Bridge stuff which managed to carry on for the right amount of time.

It didn’t have a clear cut ending which was a refreshing surprise. Hopefully the money it makes is good enough because this could be the start of a good franchise which with the ending on Harry Potter is what we need.