Movie Reviews from the Backwards Cap Film Reviewer at Review Flix.
An ordinary guy who doesn't reserve his 5 star ratings for art house films that you've never heard of but loves a big budget epic or a frat comedy as much as the next guy... and just happens to have training in Film Studies, Screenwriting and Film Production.
The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (2002) – Movie Review
Director: Peter Jackson
Screenwriter/s: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair Based on the Book by: J.R.R. Tolkien
Producers: Barrie M. Osborne
Studio: New Line Cinema
Production Companies: WingNut
Top Billed Cast: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Ian Holm, Viggo Mortensen, Andy Serkis, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Cristopher Lee, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto, Brad Dourif, Jed Brophy, Karl Urban, David Wenham.
LOGLINE: Frodo and Sam continue the perilous journey to Mount Doom to destroy their evil ring along with an unexpected Allie - Gollum. Aragorn and co set out to rescue the kidnapped hobbits before joining forces with the Rohirrim in their war against the Uruk hai.
VIEWING CIRCUMSTANCES: Opening Day, Boxing Day 2002, with a sold out cinema. Many times on DVD since.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: I made no bones about the fact that the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) films are my favourite.
STORY: This was no doubt the most difficult of the LOTR films to convert into a compelling, cinematic story.
PRODUCTION: As with the first the production is excellent and pushes the boundries of what is possible. The CGI Gollum really comes into his own here and is a breakthrough for cinema. The miniatures and props/costumes etc continue to excell.
PERFORMANCE: Again all round great performances. Some new cast members join and carry-on the high quality.
OVERALL: In my humble opinion, this is one of the best three films ever made.
LOGLINE: A quirky girl with a boring life goes to her new boyfriends hometown. But it's he has has the most growing to do from this journey, especially id he wants to keep such a special girl.
VIEWING CIRCUMSTANCES: At home (lounge room), in a single sitting, on a weeknight, with my wife.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Funny. Like a kiwi NapoleanDynamite, only better.
STORY: Not a whole lot happens, but what does is mostly quirky, funny or more likely awkward in a Mr Bean way.
PRODUCTION: Super low budget. Not bad though, I like a little indy flick that isn't pretending or trying to be something bigger or other than it is, but rather embraces it rootsy feel. For example the little moments of stop animation in this flick break up the Acts nicely.
PERFORMANCE: Strong performances from the writer/star Loren Horsley and one half of Flight of the Conchords Germain Clement. Strong supporting cast considering the low budget.
OVERALL: A little gem. Watch it!
MEETSLINE: Napolean Dynamite meets Niw Zillund.
FAVOURITE QUOTE: "That was some pretty good sex last night, huh?"
RECOMMENDED ACCOMPANIMENT: Apple and/or Fast Food Burger Meal.
RATING:
4 out of 5 reels of film.
Movie Review by A.B. McBlogsmith the Backwards Cap Film Reviewer
Top Billed Cast: John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Harvey Keitel, Frank Whaley, Christopher Walken
LOGLINE: Intersecting stories about modern day L.A. Gangsters, Boxers and Robbers all revolving around a mysterious case.
VIEWING CIRCUMSTANCES: The first time I saw this was in high school, when I wagged and went to a mates, unfortunately, not the best, he fast forwarded some sections, and there were too many other distractions - luckily it was a god enough film to cut through that crap, and by good enough I mean revolutionary. Also I now own the DVD and can enjoy it in peace.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: A classic. Though not his first, this is the film that truly marked the coming of the great QT. And thank god for QT. The man is just cool, well actually I don't know, I've never met him. Let me rephrase. His movies are cool, they ooze coolness. And this fine piece is one of his best.
STORY: The little trick of chopping up the pieces and putting them out of sequence aside, it's still a great story and would be if you played it sequentially. The Dialogue (yes capital D, it desrves that much respect) is brilliant and has it's own melody and rhythm, each character has their own unique voice, but they are each instruments in the symphony that is Pulp Fiction.
PRODUCTION: Great direction, not QT and Sally's (the late Sally Menke was his editor and longtime collaborator) best but still great.
PERFORMANCE: The piece that revived Travolta was probably his best for many to come, but in the ensemble cast Samuel is the stand out of many fine performances from many fine actors.
OVERALL: Some people hate this film. It's true I've met them. I think they're just trying to be different. I even heard one complain about the dialogue. Baby, when you can write a story half as good as this, then you can complain about the 'too much' dialogue. Anyway with dialogue like that who cares? It's like a Kevin Smith film, the dialogue is so good it almost is the point of the story, despite what all screening books teach "show don't tell", KS & QT, can tell me all they want.
MEETSLINE: Every movie ever made (it's full of homages)
FAVOURITE QUOTES: "Say 'what' again. Say 'what' again, I dare you, I double dare you motherf^(&er, say what one more Goddamn time!"
Vincent: And you know what they call a... a... a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris? Jules: They don't call it a Quarter Pounder with cheese? Vincent: No man, they got the metric system. They wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder is. Jules: Then what do they call it? Vincent: They call it a Royale with cheese. Jules: A Royale with cheese. What do they call a Big Mac? Vincent: Well, a Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call it le Big-Mac. Jules: Le Big-Mac. Ha ha ha ha. What do they call a Whopper? Vincent: I dunno, I didn't go into Burger King.
"Uuummmm, this is a tasty burger!...Mind if I have some of your tasty beverage to wash this down with?
Check out the big brains on Brett!"
"Don't be tellin' me about foot massages. I'm the foot f^(&in' master."
"Which one is Trudi? The one with all the $h!t in her face?"
"Vincent: Want some bacon? Jules: No man, I don't eat pork. Vincent: Are you Jewish? Jules: Nah, I ain't Jewish, I just don't dig on swine, that's all. Vincent: Why not? Jules: Pigs are filthy animals. I don't eat filthy animals. Vincent: Bacon tastes gooood. Pork chops taste gooood. Jules: Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know 'cause I wouldn't eat the filthy motherfucker. Pigs sleep and root in shit. That's a filthy animal. I ain't eat nothin' that ain't got sense enough to disregard its own feces. Vincent: How about a dog? Dogs eats its own feces. Jules: I don't eat dog either. Vincent: Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal? Jules: I wouldn't go so far as to call a dog filthy but they're definitely dirty. But, a dog's got personality. Personality goes a long way. Vincent: Ah, so by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal. Is that true? Jules: Well we'd have to be talkin' about one charming motherfuckin' pig. I mean he'd have to be ten times more charmin' than that Arnold on Green Acres, you know what I'm sayin'?"
"That's a pretty fucking good milkshake. I don't know if it's worth five dollars but it's pretty fucking good."
Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon you."
"Fabienne: Whose motorcycle is this? Butch: It's a chopper, baby. Fabienne: Whose chopper is this? Butch: It's Zed's. Fabienne: Who's Zed? Butch: Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."
"so he hid it, in the one place he knew he could hide something: his ass."
"Oh man, I shot Marvin in the face. "
"How would you like that? Burnt to a crisp or bloody as hell? "
"I'll just walk the earth."
"It breaks down like this: it's legal to buy it, it's legal to own it, and, if you're the proprietor of a hash bar, it's legal to sell it. It's still illegal to carry it around, but that doesn't really matter 'cause... get a load of this: if you get stopped by the cops in Amsterdam, it's illegal for them to search you. I mean, that's a right the cops in Amsterdam don't have."
RECOMMENDED ACCOMPANIMENT: Fast food burger and sprite and/or "pipeweed"
RATING:
4 1/2 out of 5 reels of film.
Movie Review by A.B. McBlogsmith the Backwards Cap Film Reviewer
Top Billed Cast: Mel Gibson, Brian Cox, Sophie Marceau, Brendan Gleeson,
LOGLINE: William Wallace leads his people, the quilted Scots, to fight the oppressive English.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Meh. I haven't seen this in ages but from I do remember of it, it was OK.
STORY: Any story about the bad English gets bonus points.
PRODUCTION: Yet another big budget epic with an Australian playing a European (I reviewd Gladiator today too). Not quite as cool production as Gladiator though.
PERFORMANCE: Some of the parts are overplayed.
OVERALL: If it were on TV right now I'd probably watch it... if nothing else was on, otherwise I'm not going to go to the trouble of renting it.
RATING:
3 out of 5 reels of film.
Movie Review by A.B. McBlogsmith the Backwards Cap Film Reviewer
Studio/s: New Zealand Film Commission, Miramax (Dist)
Production Companies: WingNut Films, Fontana Productions
Top Billed Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Kate Winslet
LOGLINE: The True Story of a couple of teenage murderesses.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: I watched this after having seen all of the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) films and most of Peter Jackson's earlier stuff. Not so much because I was interested in the film but more in Peter Jackson's career, and in particular his amazing leap from stuff like Brain Dead and Meet the Feebles to Lord of the Rings. This film didn't completely fill the gap, but I could see PJ's maturation as a filmmaker emerging in this film. The magic realism (fantastical stuff) lends it's self to his style which was previously mostly used on horror films.
STORY: The story is told artfully. There is narration in the form of diary entries and there are places where the story takes a break from narrative to go into a song or a dance, not quite like a musical but almost.
PRODUCTION: Kiwiesque, which is to say not your typical Hollywood production, which is to say not quiet as smooth or slick.
PERFORMANCE: Melanie is great - I don't know why she isn't used in more than Two and a Half Men! And Kate in her first real role is the real deal and you can see why she went on to become Kate Winslet.
OVERALL: A good film, worth a watch but it probably won't find a place of high rotation on my DVD player.
MEETSLINE: A Clockwork Orange meets Breakfast Club.
RATING:
3 out of 5 reels of film.
Movie Review by A.B. McBlogsmith the Backwards Cap Film Reviewer
Screenwriters: David Frazoni, John Logan, William Nicholson
Producers: David Frazoni, Branko Lustig, Douglas Wick, Laurie MacDonald (E.P.), Walter F. Parkes (E.P.), Terry Needham (associate)
Studios: Dreamworks SKG, Universal
Production Company: Scott Free Productions
Top Billed Cast: Russel Crowe, Jaoquin Phoenix, Connie Nielson, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris,
LOGLINE: A great Roman General through a series of betrayal and bad luck ends up having to fight deadly battles as a gladiator slave.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Great film, but not one I find myself coming back to even though I own the DVD. I guess the violence and gore is part of that reason,
STORY: The story works well brings enough originality to what is essentially a modern day Spartacus to make it interesting and even unique.
PRODUCTION: Big Budget Epic produced with style. That is to say it's everything you could want from a modern "tent pole" movie.
PERFORMANCE: Jaoquin steals the show as the snooty baddy. Richard Harris, the guy who would go on to play the first Dumbledore, is a great wizard-style mentor (grey hair, grey beard) and Russel Crowe will probably always be best remembered for this performance even if the role isn't as complex (i.e. good) as some of his others.
OVERALL: Good movie, if you haven't seen it, it's worth a watch, if you have seen it it's worth a rewatch. Be mindful that the opening is pretty full on. Apparently historians reckon it's inaccurate, but it's not a documentary, it's a piece of entertainment and as far as that goes it's pretty entertaining.
MEETSLINE: Spartacus meets Cleopatra.
RATING:
3 1/2 out of 5 reels of film.
Movie Review by A.B. McBlogsmith the Backwards Cap Film Reviewer
Director: Thomas McCarthy Screenwriter: Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni Producers: Lisa Marie Falcone, Michael London, Mary-Jane Skalski, Lori Keith Douglas (E.P.), Tom Heller (E.P.), Jaqueline Brogan, Erica Tuchman (associate) Studio: Fox Searchlight Production Companies: Everest Entertainment, Groundswell Productions, Next Wednesday Productions Top Billed Cast: Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Bobby Cannavale, Jeffrey Tambor, Burt Young, Melanie Lynskey, Alex Shaffer, Margo Martindale
LOGLINE: A struggling Lawyer/Husband/Father/Wrestling Coach on the verge of a nervous breakdown is forced to look after a 15yo boy with a dark past who happens to be a fantastic wrestler. But the boy will teach the man more than just wrestling.
VIEWING CIRCUMSTANCES: At the Flicks (Dendy, Canberra Centre), with a group of filmmakers from SCREENACT, the local office of Film and Television. Monica Penders (The Secret of Moonacre), the SCREENACT manager, is friends with one of the Win Win Producers, Mary-Jane Skalski, and had organised a Skype lecture with Mary for Producer Pod, one of the courses they ran recently, and so a bunch of us from the course decided to all go and see it together, in fact they put on a special screening just for us, but it worked out OK for them as they ended up selling a lot of tickets to regular (not from our group) punters. But that didn't stop us from cheering at Mary's name in the opening credits.
*full disclosure - I have since had a few correspondences with Mary, who is uber-lovely, and we are now Facebook 'friends' but I don't think it has influenced my rating or review of the film, but I do note it is unusually high for this type of film, so maybe it has... who knows?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Great film, one of my favourite of 2011 so far. Only two films this year have made me laugh and cry this and The Help. And please don't tell anyone I said that I cried in a film, I have a reputation to maintain...
STORY: Wonderful story, very real, very believable. Tomas McCarthy is really coming into his own.
PRODUCTION: There are no car chases or explosions, and the cinematography isn't particularly beautiful or special, but I don't know if that would serve a film like this. I think the understated production adds to the feel of the understated, ordinary lives of the characters.
PERFORMANCE: Great. The kid, Alex Shaffer, is star! Giamatti is excellent as always, plays a similar character that we've seen before, (the down and out guy) in such films as Duets and of course Sideways. Bobby Cannavale does great to play the comic relief subtlety.
OVERALL: A great surprise. Go see it.
MEETSLINE: The Wrestler meets Sideways.
FAVOURITE QUOTE: none.
RECOMMENDED ACCOMPANIMENT: Pancakes with Syrup & A Glass of Milk.
RATING:
4 1/2 out of 5 reels of film.
Movie Review by A.B. Mcblogsmith the Backwards Cap Film Reviewer
Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring (2001) – Movie Review
Director: Peter Jackson Screenwriters: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson Based on the Book by: J.R.R. Tolkien Producers: Peter Jackson, Barrie M. Osborne, Tim Sanders, Fran Walsh, Michael Lynne (E.P. New Line), Mark Ordesky (E.P. New Line), Bob Weinstein (E.P.), Harvey Weinstein (E.P.) Rick Porras (Wingnut), Jamie Selkirk (Wingnut), Robert Shaye, Ellen Sommers (A.P.). Studio: New Line Cinema Production Company: Wingnut Films, Top Billed Cast: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Ian Holm, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Cristopher Lee, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd.
OK, here we go and where better to start this film review blog that at number one on my all time list.
LOGLINE: A small person sets out on a journey across dangerous lands to destroy a ring of great evil. As he journeys he gathers a party of followers including a great wizard, a ranger, and elf, a dwarf, a knight and... his gardener. Together they face many dangerous and perilous obstacles, none less than the ring in their possession.
VIEWING CIRCUMSTANCES: The first time I saw this was also my first experience with a premium cinema, Hoyts La Premier in Perth, where I was on Holiday. La Premier has a waiting lounge and unlimited pop corn and soda and tea and coffee. Unfortunately I had too much coffee and coke and could last the epic three hours without a runpee. A good excuse to go back and watch it in the cinema again... and again, even though I made it through the second time by not drinking anything for three hours before!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: When I first heard that this film was coming out from my brother who saw a teaser trailer, I hadn't read the books. I was into a MUD (Multi User Dimension), an online fantasy text based game (OK, so much for my reputation as a cool movie reviewer, the game is up, I'm a nerd, good now I can relax) so had a slight interest in the fantasy genre but I was from from a die hard.
So I went and read the book before the film was released. And I loved it! (I didn't read the second book, TTT, until after the film came out to see if this was better. It wasn't so then I read the third, ROTK before the film release). But I couldn't see how any film could do it justice. Especially the director of Brain Dead! Little did I know, Peter Jackson was in the process of taking the medium of film to a new level.
STORY: Tolkien's Epic is a true masterpiece. PJ, Fran and Philippa's adaptation does it justice. They found the true heart (spine) of the story, hit all the essential beats of any good film and somehow managed to stay to the characters and filled it will Tolkien's famous detail. No mean feat.
PRODUCTION: Old school miniatures and forced focus in camera trickery (making the hobbits look small by putting the further from the camera than the" big folk"), mixed with leading edge CGI (computer graphics) and a WETA's (the workshop that built all the sets, makeup, costumes, props etc) brilliant attention to detail (they engraved the insides of costume's in elvish that no camera would ever see) made for a breakthrough in quality and scope of production not seen since Star Wars over 20 years prior.
PERFORMANCE: Wonderful performances all round from an experienced, classy cast devoid of 'movie stars', which in my humble opinion was part of what made this such a great film - no distracting faces (i.e. I wasn't watching Brad Pitt, I was watching Aragorn). Speaking of which, Viggo's perfromance was one of the best, any guy who sleeps outside with his sword to get into character is going to put in a great performance though, isn't he?
OVERALL: As I said, this is my favourite film (though I usually count the trilogy as a single).
MEETSLINE: some movies are above meetslines. This is one such movie.
FAVOURITE QUOTE: "You shall not pass!"
"I will take it. I will take the ring to Mordor... though I do not know the way"
"I don't think he knows about second breakfast Pip." / "What about Elevensies..."
RECOMMENDED ACCOMPANIMENT: Tea with toast and jam or soup with toast and cheese.
