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Films Rock - by Mickey

Later this year, one of my all time favourite books will be released as a move. It's Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, and in November I'll hopefully be attending advance screenings as a reviewer.

My emotions at this point are a bit mixed. I love this book, I love it so hard I can't even elaborate accurately. I love Eric Bana and I think Rachel McAdams will make a good Clare, at least she will looks wise. I'm happy with the casting in theory, but how it's going to work in practice could be another story.

It's always a bit this way, when books are made into movies. Sometimes the interpretation is off. Sometimes your favourite bit is cut out (for example, so many Lord of the Rings fans lamented the loss of Tom Bombodil from the first movie). Sometimes, things that the book hinges on are completely forgotten and so on.

There's a risk when you really love a book that the movie is going to spoil it for you. When I was about 13 my Mum gave me the Thornbirds to read and then with great excitement when I was done, we went to get the movie out. I remember being disappointed from the word go because Rachel Ward had brown hair, not the golden red locks that were such a feature of Meggie in the book.

So what are some hits and misses for you? The Thornbirds is totally a miss for me. Harry Potter I think might be a hit, but it's getting harder now as the kids get older and out age their characters. Twilight is a miss, but then, the book was a total miss too so...

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Twilight... um?

March 2nd 2009 00:07

I could either have people wholeheartedly agree with me here or have the TwiFans (so they’re called apparently) coming after me with pitchforks and wooden stakes.

I’ve seen the Twilight movie twice (I know, I know) and though I did notice things the second time around that I hadn’t the first time, my conclusion was still the same; it’s so completely terrible that it’s good. Seeing the movie once did start me on a bit of a tear and I read the books, mostly because I wanted to see if they were as terrible as the movie (they’re worse) and also because as I’ve said before, I’m a lit student and I needed to make sure that my turning my nose up at the series was actually warranted. (It was.)

For those of you who don’t know the story (who quite possibly could have been living under a rock), it’s a vampire teen romance story. Bella Swan, an ordinary girl, moves to the middle of nowhere Seattle to live with her Dad and falls in love with a vampire named Edward. Now despite how far fetched this sounds, I’m more than happy to go with whatever theme a movie has. I’m not really a romantic sort of person, but if that’s the type of movie I’m seeing then I’m prepared to play the part of the girl and get caught up as the leading lady gets swept away. But this was so hard to get into and go along with. I think the biggest problem was that I never really felt like I was watching something real. Everything felt so contrived, so filmed that I never got caught up enough to believe it was happening. One of the best scenes, where Bella confronts Edward about his being a vampire, is also one of the most contrived scenes with the camera angles sweeping around the two actors then up into the trees, then long shots, then close ups. The way the two stand, Edward a few steps behind Bella, feels like they’re rooted to their marks and I don’t think a viewer should be thinking about marks and camera angles like that in the middle of a movie. At least, not the first time you see it.

Then there were lots of little things that threw me out. Like the vampires. The mother vampire, Esme, had so much white powder on her face that it extended a quarter of an inch into her hairline. Also, in the book the vampires are stunningly beautiful. Now while the cast is quite attractive, they are not the type of out of this world beautiful that the books describe. I have a friend who suggested that the cast of Gossip Girl would have been better suited to playing the Cullen family in this case. The vampire, Jasper, is perhaps the most hilarious character (and he’s so not intended to be). He spends a good portion of the movie doing a good impression of Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands. You know, that really surprised look he does?

The special effects leave a lot to be desired and if you go and see the movie after this review, my favourite effect is Edward running up a tree with Bella on his back. “Hold on spider-monkey.”

What I did like about the film was the sound track. I’ve actually had it on repeat on my iPod for quite a while. Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron and Wine is my favourite.

If you’re a teenage girl, you’ll probably love the movie on account of the fact that Robert Pattinson is quite adorable. If you’re a grown up, not at all romantic or a jaded lit major, you’re probably going to come and sit alongside me.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

February 11th 2009 23:03

My sister and I are working our way through the Oscar nominees list, trying to see as many as possible before the big day. Over the weekend we saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, one of the most heavily nominated films this year. I was a bit reluctant about this one and I still don't really know why. I'd heard mixed reviews; I had been told that it was long, that it was a bit boring and that it wasn't what people had expected. It may have been the length that had me avoiding it to begin with, and it was very long (about three hours), but in the end that wasn't a problem.

If you've read the F. Scott Fitzgerald story by the same name, don't go into the movie expecting it to be anything alike because it's not. Aside from the name and the curious aging in reverse of Benjamin, the two are completely separate stories.

The story opens in a new Orleans hospital in 2005, just as Hurricane Katrina approaches. Elderley Daisy (Cate Blanchett) is on her deathbed, her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond) watches over her and tries to give some comfort in her final moments. After telling a rather cryptic story about a clock maker, Daisy asks Caroline to retrieve a diary from her suitcase and read it to her. Inside the diary is the story of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), the man who aged in reverse.

It's not an action packed film, however there is a nice balance between conflict and drama. It's the sort of film that it's easy to get lost in which helpswith the length. It's very gentle, moves from point to point, storyline to storyline in a way that's easy to follow. The beginning is a bit slow and I found myself wondering where it was going, but once things start flowing it settles into a rythym that isn't really interrupted for the whole movie.

There's so much that's beautiful about this movie. The story telling is lovely, the characters are fantastic, believable and incredibly well played. Benjamin's adopted mother, Queenie (Taraji P. Henson) is one of the best in the film. It's very easy to see why Henson is nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. My sister, the film student was wrapped in the cinematography, and she is right, the film looks beautiful on screen.

I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. It's not really something I'd go and see if you weren't in the mood to think, nor is it the sort of movie I'd recommend if you're looking for something action packed and fast moving.

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Match Point

January 26th 2009 23:17

I'll admit that sometimes I buy DVDs based on who stars in it rather than what the story is about. Actually, sometimes I buy them based on who has an obscure, not even top billed, cameo in the movie which was the case with Match Point.

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Marley & Me

January 15th 2009 02:41

For 12 years I wasn't much of a dog person. Or at least, I told myself I wasn't much of a dog person. As a child I always had a dog. Shelly was my first, who my dad accidentally ran over, then came Sooty who was my childhood best friend and died of a tick when I was 12, then we got Bobby a psycho Jack Russell who we had to give away when we moved interstate. After that, we never lived in a place where we could get another dog and so, I stopped being a dog person

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New writer intro...

January 14th 2009 02:04

Hi there, I'm Mickey and I'm the new writer for filmsrock.com

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this at the moment. I was keeping a blog on literature, was given a domain and it turned out to be this one and it doesn't really fit with the name and the previous posts. So I suppose I'm going to attempt to write a film blog. Right

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Top 10 Characters I'd Most Like To Play

October 19th 2008 08:34

Have you ever been watching a movie and thought to yourself how cool and awesome it would be to be actually playing that character or even be that character? Well I've come up with my first top ten list.

The Top 10 Characters I'd Most Like To Play

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