Eat Your Carrots

No Happy Ending

We went to see Atonement the other day. This film was partly set in our local seaside town, Redcar, which was posing as 1940's Dunkirk because it looks more like 1940's Dunkirk now than Dunkirk does! We went to see Redcar during the filming last year and it was good to finally see the finished article. Some (perhaps local) critics have said that the Redcar/Dunkirk scene is the highlight of the whole movie, though that's perhaps a bit unfair.

The movie wasn't as I expected. Firstly it had a habit of showing events twice, once from someone's viewpoint and then again from someone else's, or at other times showing and event and then showing the events leading up to that event. Confusing if you don't pay attention. My attention wavered at one point and I failed to see what Robbie wrote in his letter to Cecelia, a pretty key point in the events that followed!

Secondly it's not really a war film, which I kind of thought that it was. The Dunkirk scene is a very small (but significant, as it transpires) part of the film and it's mostly a 1930's-set romantic drama.

The final thing that wasn't as I expected is that there was no happy ending. OK, why should movies always have a happy ending, but this one really kicks you in the teeth. The people behind me were sobbing out loud (well OK, quietly, but still out loud, if you know what I mean).

I'd have to say that I enjoyed the film. Not what I expected and a bit of a girly film, but enjoyable all the same. And Redcar really did us proud.

Atonement 7/10

X Men 3

We went to see X Men 3 - The Last Stand today. I've always been a big fan of the comic books and have been very happy with the portrayal they have received on the big screen. Today was no exception, though with one minor grumble and one very major one!
Minor grumble first: Vinnie Jones. I've nothing against the guy, other than the fact that he's a crap actor. I'm sure he could do a good job of playing Juggernaut if all he had to do was growl and look mean. But they gave him a speaking part. Why oh why? His lines were corny and cheesy and delivered in his usual ham acted way and with an over-emphasised English accent. It made me cringe.
And now the major grumble: Don't you hate it when scriptwriters tinker with things that ought to be sacrosanct? My biggest complaint of any movie script ever was in Mission Impossible (1) when they made the bad guy turn out to be Jim Phelps. That would never happen, and it spoiled not only that movie but the whole MI genre for me. Well in X Men 3, they kill off three of the major mutant good-guys. That just didn't happen in the comics and as a plot premise I just can't buy it. Maybe the actors in question didn't want to be in any more sequels, or maybe they wanted too much money, who knows. It still sucks though.
Anyway, on to the movie. Apart from those grumbles I thought it was excellent, though maybe not quite up there with X Men 2. It had sufficient moments of tension for me, and what with killing off main characters left right and centre, enough unpredictability too. Having said that, the final and closing scene was all too predictable. But it points the way to another sequel - the fourth in the trilogy, to paraphrase one of the Orange adverts. The characters were all their usual selves, no different from the other movies really, well acted (on a whole - Vinnie Jones excepted). Oh, I have another gripe... How come Ice Man, Beast and Angel have been brought in now, as if they are "new" characters, when in actual fact they were the original X Men!? (Maybe I'm being just a bit too geeky and intense here).
X Men 3 - 7/10

The Da Vinci Code

OK, having seen the movie now I can declare (in my opinion, anyway) that it's not as bad as all the critics say it is. It's probably not as good as the critics would hope a blockbuster (and it's sure to be one) would be, but it's probably as good as you could make it given the subject matter. Face it, the book is not full of comedy, romance, nail-biting suspense or edge-of-the-seat thrills, and so neither is the movie. And you don't come out full of excitement declaring "what a great movie that was" - but then I did do that with King Kong and War Of The Worlds and plenty of people didn't like those movies either.
This movie does a pretty good job of faithfully telling the story as told in the book. If you enjoyed the book then probably you'll enjoy the movie - though for some reason they did tinker with the ending, to no logical purpose that I could see. I've read criticism of almost every aspect of the movie, from Tom Hanks' hair to the size differential between he and Audrey Tatou. That's just ridiculous. I didn't find Hanks' hair anything like as distracting as I was lead to believe, and not every woman in the world is 6 feet tall, so size differentials are a fact of life!
It didn't even feel like a 2 3/4 hour movie to me either. If it had been as boring as it was painted I'd have been asleep or itching to leave. As it was, the time passed quite quickly and I didn't find time dragging at all.
My favourite character was Paul Bettany's Silas. I though he played him well, with just enough mad menace about him, and looking almost exactly as I had painted Silas in my own mind as I read the book. Quite a decent Spanish accent too.
I doubt I'd place this film on my list of all time favourites, but then neither is Gone With The Wind or Titanic, and they were both blockbuster's too. I just thought it was a decent movie, well acted and well directed, telling a very good story and being not at all deserving of all the criticism it's received.
The Da Vinci Code - 7.5 / 10

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

What a wonderful film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is. Having seen in the previews that Johnny Depp (Willy Wonka) looks like Freddie Mercury meets Michael Jackson, I was a little worried about how the film would be. No need to worry. Depp is a genius and absolutely perfect as Willy Wonka. His (subtle) facial expressions and the timing of his delivery had me in constant laughter (even when I think we weren't really expected to laugh).
I thought the kids were perfectly cast too, each horrid in their own special  way, except Charlie of course, who was just ever so nice in a typically English way.
I was laughing at something or other almost from start to finish - well certainly as soon as Willy Wonka made his appearance - and the first Oompa Loompa number almost had me rolling in the aisle. With its disco moves and synchronised swimming it was so different from in the original (the rest of the numbers couldn't really follow that one, after you know what to expect).
It varied a bit from the original, showing Wonka's troubled childhood, and I couldn't say which film is closer to the book, having never read it. Sister prefers the original, quoting it as one of her favourite films, but I really prefer this later version. I don't think Gene Wilder's characterisation is a patch on Depp's. I could go and watch it again tomorrow.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 9.5/10

Fantastic Four

We went to see The Fantastic Four on Friday night. This is the latest Marvel comic series to be made into a movie, and I feel obliged to see them all (except The Incredible Hulk). I was a big fan of the comics (except The Incredible Hulk) in my younger days and I still enjoy a good nostalgia trip.
The Fantastic Four is not the best of the Marvel movies, nowhere near as good as X Men or Spiderman, and you have to wonder why. Surely by now they know a formula that works, the right mix of action, effects and storyline. And yet here once again they didn't quite get it right. For me there was too much schmaltzy melodrama and not enough real action. Not enough exploration and use of the special powers they'd been "given" and too much chit-chat.
The plot was too contrived too, squeezing too much into one movie and deviating from the comic book "truth" too much for my liking (Dr Doom's "true" origins were nothing like those portrayed here). Having said that it wasn't a bad movie, I really quite enjoyed it. I guess maybe I'm just too much of a Marvel purist. The effects were pretty good, the characters looked and behaved "realistically" and there were some amusing moments too. The final fight showdown with Doom was too contrived and over too quickly, but did at least demonstrate using team work to defeat a powerful enemy. And that was always one of the FF's strong points.
Fantastic Four 7/10

War Of The Worlds

We went to see War Of The Worlds last night. I have to say it was really excellent, one of the best films I've seen. It had me feeling really tense and kind of scared almost all the way through it.
It's the first movie like this that I've seen that shows it purely from the "victim's" point of view. There's no gung-ho hero, no ridiculously flawed plan to save the world (viz the computer virus in Independence Day). There's just a lot of people dying and fleeing in panic. And one man, Tom Cruise, trying hard just to keep his family alive.
It really does get across the feeling of futility and despair - helped no end by the marvelous Dakota Fanning who plays Cruise's petrified child.
I doubt it's very true to the original movie, nor to the novel (except the opening and closing passages, possibly) but I don't care about that. I don't really know those anyway. What I do know is that this was a first rate film that left me feeling somewhat shaken.
The only real flaw with it? How did Robbie get home??

Ladder 49

We went to see Ladder 49 tonight. The reviews of it haven't been too kind, saying it is a quite boring and lightweight movie that only shows us what we've all seen before in other, similar movies. I guess I must have missed those movies (the excellent Backdraft is the only one I can recount) because I didn't find this at all boring or lightweight. I found it quite moving (in fact very moving at times) and decently acted (with John Travolta and Joaquin Phoenix you should know what to expect by now).
It's the story of Ladder 49, a squad of firefighters from Baltimore, and in particular Phoenix's character Jack Morrison. As he lies trapped and injured in a burning building his life as a fireman passes through his mind, and we see it as a series of flashbacks, from the day he joined the force right to current time. Good times and bad; love found, friends lost; triumph and tragedy.
I wouldn't go and see this if you want a "feel good" film - it's far from that. It could have been a feel good film, but the film makers  deemed it better to give us no happy ending. After all, why should there always be a happy ending? Life's just not like that.
Ladder 49 - 8/10

National Treasure

We went to see National Treasure today. "What's it about", asked a friend before I went. "That's irrelevant - Sean Bean is in it, so wife says we have to go", I replied.
Well, it's about a treasure hunt - a treasure collected by the Knights Templar while they were on the Crusades and hidden around Europe and eventually America where it has remained hidden and to all intents lost since the War Of Independence. Like all good treasure hunts, our heroes (and villains - Bean's a villain again, but at least he lives to beyond half way through the movie for a change) find a clue that leads to another clue that leads to another and another... is there really any treasure? Well you have to wait and see.
It's a bit of a modern-day Indiana Jones type of film - entertaining nonsense - and I really enjoyed it, better than I'd hoped I think.
And as for the leading lady, Diane Kruger (Helen in Troy, alongside Bean again), she's a bit of a national treasure herself! Mmm.
National Treasure  8/10

The Phantom Of The Opera

So we went to see The Phantom Of The Opera last night.
I suppose one thing that you could say about it was that it was "a lavish production", but for me that's about all that you could say. I'm not really a fan of those types of musical that are all songs and little dialog, of which this was one. It's not so bad when all of the songs are songs you like and/or know well, but I really don't like the songs from Phantom very much (before the film I only knew three of them anyway). I really enjoyed Evita, but I suppose the difference between this and Evita was simply that I enjoyed the songs more.
I suppose the film was well done, decently acted and sung (though Phantom wasn't the best of singers) and the little black&white sequences had the atmosphere that was intended of them. If you already know and love the stage show I guess you wouldn't be disappointed with the film.
So not a complete waste of two hours, by no means the worst film I've ever seen (and at least now I know the story of "The Phantom"), but really one for musical buffs rather than your average cinema-goer.
The Phantom Of The Opera 5/10

Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason

I find I have to agree with Kirsty and say that this is is "flimsy lightweigth entertainment" - and not awfully entertaining. The plot is wafer-thin, revolving around Bridget's insecurity in her relationship with Mark Darcey and the crap advice that she gets from her friends. Daniel Cleaver is almost a bit-part in this movie, which is a shame as I thought he was the best character and we could have done with more of him.
It's not as funny as the previous Diary, either because we've already seen all the fat/clumsy jokes, or because it's simply not very funny. There aren't even any car chases, explosions, sex or nudity, which in the absence of comedy and a plot would have really helped to lift the movie.
Still, at least Nando's afterwards was excellent, and the sauce seemed much hotter than in Leeds!
Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason 5/10.
Nando's 10/10