Ghosts Dont Exist (2010)

Ghosts Don’t Exist is suppose to be a horror film which won the 2010 DC Independent Film Festival. It does raise the question as to what the other films were like that meant this was the best. The film focuses on Brett Wilson who is a ghost hunter when at the beginning of the film his wife passes away. The film then focuses on Wilson who is told that he has to produce one more episode of his TV show or the network will take legal action. First point to raise is that after spending ages convincing him to do it, the guy (presumably representing the network) is concerned that Wilson is going along with the final trip. The story moves to a house where some weird guy talks some rubbish and then kills himself. The rest of the film attempts to try and create some tension but fails miserably. People start to act strange and the filmmakers are trying to convince us that there is some paranormal force behind the behaviour changes they tend change the rules and say that the behaviour was cause by carbon monoxide.

The acting was terrible. I mean woeful. The lead (Phillip Roebuck) was very boring to watch and when the lead is that dull its very hard to let the film work. The others weren’t much better with every single actor on screen doing their level best to ruin the film. I thought that maybe the film title would be some clever plot twist but no. There was not one single ghost in the entire damn film. Ghosts Don’t Exist is the sort of movie that wouldn’t look out of place on Channel 5 in the middle of the afternoon. There is absolutely nothing scary whatsoever about this movie and I’m surprised it won anything apart from ‘Turkey of the Year’.

As of this moment, it has been reviewed 294 times on IMDB and it’s got an overall rating of 3.4 out of 10. I think 2.4 out of ten is probably the most realistic. Ghosts Don’t Exist is a poor excuse for a film and its not very often when I want to stop the film but this was one of those times but you have to see it in its entirety to judge something and having sat through this I can honestly say that I wish Ghosts do exist because it would have made this film more enjoyable.

Ninja Terminator (1985)

 

Ninja Terminator is quite possibly one of the worst films that I have ever seen or ever will see. All the problems I have with the Maltese Falcon pales into insignificance compared to Ninja Terminator. The plot and I use that word loosely is that three parts of a statue are split up and have people are after all three parts. What happens is a mess of a film, well technically two films because it’s clear that at least two films have been blurred together to make it. As nothing actually makes sense it’s down to the martial arts sequences to save the film but considering this is the only thing in the movie that works what we get are several very prolonged sequences which after a while get a little bit boring.

There are too many things that are truly mad to mention but the idea of a little transformers robot causing any terror is a stupid idea and all you can do is really laugh but it does make you wonder what was going on in Godfrey Ho’s mind that he thought people would find this dramatic. You cant use the classic excuse which is that it’s the 80’s. Richard Harrison seems to have more fun with him Garfield cat than anything else. Random people turn up with at times dodgy blond wigs and nothing makes any sense.

As dodgy as the acting is the directing is truly appauling. There are several moments where the camera cuts off people and then slowly pans back to get the right number of people. There have been instances where people are talking but all we see are the people they are talking to. Ninja Terminator has to be seen to be believed. These films effectively ruined Harrison’s career but to end up in these sort of movies implies that he didn’t really have a career.

Everything Or Nothing (2012)

Everything or Nothing is the name of the production company that makes the Bond films and it pretty much sums up the mood of the franchise. The documentary starts off talking about how Ian Fleming was in the Second World War and goes up until the current day. We got the early days of Jimmy Bond (which was truly awful) and it was interesting to see how close Bond came to not being the success that it did.

Interestingly Sean Connery is the only one that doesn’t appear in person in the documentary. It’s a shame really as it would be nice to know how he feels about the franchise now instead of back in the 1970’s or 80’s when his opinion was rather poor. Roger Moore is funny with his line about being horrified when 007 knocks a Thai boy off his boat and as a UN Ambassador wouldn’t do that. Be fair, that was shot about 20 years before he started to work for the UN. George Lazenby is quite honest about his time in the role and how he basically talked himself out of it which I thought was surprising. Timothy Dalton is quite good as well in the documentary. But its Pierce Brosnan who is the best because I didn’t know about the fact he could have been Bond instead of Dalton and even he realises that riding a Tsunami in Die Another Day was a ludircrous idea as well as the invisible car.

Barbara Brocolli and Michael Wilson provide some interesting comments from their points of view with how Chubby Broccolli and Harry Saltzman bought the rights and how the series took off straight away. I thought the whole story about Sean Connery leaving the franchise and then making Never Say Never which was a rival Bond movie and the whole saga of Thunderbull and how Ian Flemming was accused of plagiarism and it allowed Kevin McClory to become producer of the film and tried to effectively think he could own the character.

Everything or Nothing isn’t perhaps as honest as it could have been but as it is, I found it to be very entertaining with some very good contributions and as for any Bond fan it should be viewed.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Planet of the Apes is a film that I have never actually seen but bought the bought set for a tenner from HMV. The first film sees an astronaut crew crash land on a planet which is run (not surprisingly by apes).  The plot is rather flimsy as all that happens is that Charlton Heston crash lands on the planet, get caught by the apes, try and convince the apes of who he is and try to escape.  It’s only 112 minutes and whilst I wasn’t wowed by the movie, I thought that its running time was the right length.

The make up was also very impressive. It’s easy to mock when you judge it against today’s standards but it does hold up quite well. The hairstyles are screaming the era that it was made and the fashion is also slightly suspect but whenever your trying to predict fashion in the future your always going to get into trouble and its quite amusing at times.

In terms of performances, Charlton Heston is easily the best thing in the movie. His performance tries to be macho but he doesn’t quite pull it off. What he does do well is demand your attention whenever he’s on screen. I wasn’t as interested with the apes but thought that Heston’s performance draw you in.

I’m not quite sure that I could call this a great film. It’s a rather average film if truth be told with one rather impressive moment but I’m hoping that the rest of the films will be an improvement but from what I’ve been told that isn’t entirely acurate

The Omen (1976)

The Omen is one of those films that is regarded as a classic or at the very least an important one. The film is the first of five (including a 2006 remake) sees Gregory Peck playing an ambassador sent to the UK with his wife and son (who isn’t really his son but pretends to his wife) when Patrick Troughton tells him that he should get Damien seen too. As the film progresses, the desire to get Damien baptised grows stronger and the deaths and attempts to prevent this from happening get more and more extreme. The film is notorious for all the things that went wrong and that is perhaps more interesting than the film itself which is always a problem.

The plot is quite plain and straightforward however its helped with lovely performances. Gregory Peck is an actor that I’m not totally wild about as every film that I have seen him in (which currently stands at 3), the film takes about 2/3 of its time setting up the film before Peck gets into top gear and he does the same here. When he’s good then he’s very good but it takes too long to see it. David Warner is brilliant in it. In fact he’s brilliant in everything he is in and it’s a shame that he doesn’t make it until the end of the movie but his exit was quite impressive. Anotehr great piece of casting was Patrick Troughton, now I am being biased here because I am a Doctor Who fan and even if I wasn’t then I would still have enjoyed his performance because it was a good but all too brief performance. The kid playing Damien (Harvey Stephens) is quite creepy and even though he doesn’t say anything he still manages to have an air of creepiness about him which is what you would expect really.

The film isn’t particularly scary.. I don’t think that its rubbish but there are large chunks of the movie that were not very engaging. The Omen is a film that has a status in movies that it doesn’t quite deserve. Not sure what the other films are like but usually sequels tend to be worse than the previous films so I don’t hold out high hopes for it. The Omen had potential but for some reason it didn’t quite reach it.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010)

Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a film that was directed by Edgar Wright who was behind Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. This film doesn’t feature Simon Pegg or Nick Frost but does have computer games running through it like a stick of blackpool rock. The story sees Scott Pilgrim trying to go out with a girl but first he must defeat her seven exes. As plots go, this is one of the more interesting that I have seen for quite a while. The film opens up with what the Universal logo and theme would look like if they were on a Super Nintendo.

At first I struggled to like the guy playing Scott. I just found him to be a bit annoying and actually found Kieran Culkin to be the funniest thing in the entire movie. After a while I got use to Michael Cera’s performance and that’s the thing about this movie. After about 20-30 minutes I got use to the whole film and understood that this wasn’t going to a normal comedy. All the battles that Scott was involved in were all quite well done and highly entertaining.  After the first battle ended and the coins fell to the floor I did chuckle to myself and I think anyone who has ever played a computer game over the last thirty years or so will understand several gags that go on in this film. At 112 minutes, this film is just the right length. It doesn’t feel like there is a lot of padding but neither does it feel like its rushing which is a fine balance that Edgar Wright and the writers have got just right.

I do like this film though I’m not entirely sure why. There are plenty of things to like about it but I cant put hand on my heart and say that it’s the best film I’ve ever seen. 

Lincoln (2012)

There has been a lot of hype about this movie due to Daniel Day Lewis’ performance which is possibly going to earn him an Oscar. The film is based on a novel called Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abrham Lincoln written by Doris Kearns Goodwin and focuses on the final four months of Lincoln’s life where is trying to have the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constituion which outlawed slavery and involuntary sertitude passed through the US House of Representatives.

The whole movie is about this and the struggles that Lincoln has to deal with because as well as trying to get this through the house, he has to try and end the civil war. These two things work well in trying to create some dramatic moments throughout the film. At 150 minutes in length the film can afford to take its time telling this story and does so. As a result it allows you to get involved in the characters and of that period and understand why this was such an important in American History. Spielberg has a track record with important historical moments. I think Schlindler’s List is one of his best films and I thought that whilst Munich had its moments, wasn’t as good. Lincoln benefits not only from good performances but also from a good screenplay.

Daniel Day Lewis’ performance was superb with some of the speeches he gives to be fantastic and mesmorising. At times I got so involved in the movie that I forgot it was it was Day-Lewis in the role. He looked exactly like Lincoln and even though we don’t know what he sounded like, the voice seemed to suit the movie. Sally Field is also very good and does well as the first Lady. The character has issues and Field plays it perfectly. Tommy Lee Jones is one of those actors that you can trust to come up with a superb performance and here he continues that. He plays Thaddeus Stevens who comes across as a nice guy and we find out why at the end which I must admit I didn’t see coming.

Other good performances include Hal Holbrook as Francis Preston Blair and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Lincoln’s son. It seems to be impossible to watch a film with him in it.
If I had to pick an issue with the film it is that it deals with Lincoln’s death to rapidly. A large chunk of the movie is dealt with getting the amendment passed and then it feels like the next moment he has been assinated. I would have liked a bit more to this bit to have a greater sense of his loss. That said that is the only thing that I can find fault with and its not a major one which shows just what a great film it is.

Lincoln is a fanstastic film that has some outstanding performances as well as some truly wonderful directing. Spielberg knows how the tell a story and he manages to do it in this movie. One of the critiscm’s that I had heard before seeing this movie was that John Williams’ music is overbearing, well to be honest I thought the exact opposite. The music worked well and I think this may be the best movie of the year and if it wins the Oscar then I wont be too surprised.