Monday 31 January 2011

Further Films I believe should be in this list

I can't decide whether to update this list, or whether to post a new blog each time...

(500) Days of Summer,
21,
American Pie,
The Aviator,
Beverly Hills Cop,
Braveheart,
Bruce Almighty,
The Day of the Jackal,
Disclosure,
The Eagle has Landed,
Finding Nemo,
Gladiator,
The Green Mile,
In Bruges
Inglorious Basterds,
The Invention of Lying,
Kelly's Heroes,
Kingdom of Heaven,
Lethal Weapon,
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,
Manchurian Candidate (2004),
Shrek,
Superman (the 1978 version starring Christopher Reeve),
Up,
V for Vendetta,
Walk the Line,
Snatch,
Vantage Point
And more... I will mention them as and when they come to mind.

002 - The Accidental Tourist (1988)

The saying that no man is an island plays strongly throughout the film The Accidental Tourist – an insight into the turning point in the life of Macon Leary (William Hunt) where his island of a life drifts back to the mainland of society.

The death of his son sent Macon’s life spiralling into isolation, not helped by his job as a tour guide writer, which keeps him away from his wife for weeks on end. Eventually his marriage breaks down, and he has no-one but his late son’s dog for company.

That is until he meets the kooky, overbearing dog trainer, Muriel (Greena Davis), who forces herself into his life as much as she forces him into her own.

The mood of the story is constantly sombre, aided greatly by William Hunt’s excellent portrayal of the recluse, mumbling writer and the clever use of soundtrack. Despite the slow pace, it can be viewed as a comedy in its clever use of irony laced through the relationships of the characters, even if it is rarely laugh-out-loud funny.

The film’s ending really draws all the strands seperate strands of the storyline to a firm knot, and Macon finally stops saying “maybe” to life and makes a decision other than what is expected of him by his family.

I personally liked this film, but was not blown away. Its many clever devices, and engaging story can easily be missed due to the lack of excitment. If you want a laugh-out-loud comedy along the same lines, I’d point you towards Yes Man. If you want a truly meaningful story of a troubled man turning his life around, this is perfect.

The Accidental Tourist on IMDB

My Rating:


Next Up:The Accused

001 - A. I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Having watched the first film two days ago now, and having started watching the second, I thought I'd better get round to posting a review of it online.

A. I. Artificial Intelligence, directed by Stephen Spielberg, is a powerful, emotionally-engaging study of the concept of the love a child holds for its parents, and the lengths they'd be willing to go for it.

The story centers around David (Haley Joel Osment), the first robot to have the capacity to feel emotions. In particular, David could feel love. Once formed, the bond David would have to his parent(s) (in this instance, David only bonded with his mother) cannot be broken, and he must be destroyed if they were to decide they no longer wanted him.

As the first robot of this kind, he is sold to a couple whose "real" child is cryogenically frozen, awaiting a cure to a terminal illness. Upon the return of his brother, David unwittingly causes chaos around the home under instruction from his brother and his adoptive parents decide they cannot cope. However, rather than taking David back to have him destroyed, his mother takes him to the woods and leaves him to fend for himself with his faithful aide, a robotic teddy named Teddy.

Initialy, I found Teddy was slightly creepy, but as the story moves on the audience is made aware of his good intentions. He's by far my favourite character mainly because he's such an unlikely aide to David on his journey.

From reading Pinocchio, David believes the only way he will be allowed to return is if he becomes a real boy, and sets about finding the Blue Fairy to make his dreams come true and to make his mother love him.

This story clearly can be linked to other storylines such as Edward Scissorhands, Bicentennial Man, I, Robot and of course, Mary Shelly's Frankinstein. In each of these stories, an artifically-created being simply craves acceptance of the wider society, but is rejected on the grounds that they are different. What makes A. I. Artificial Intelligence stand apart from the rest of this subgenre is the cruelty in the way David's mother cast him aside and the perfection in the performance of Haley Joel Osment, who truly brings the character - and an otherwise dull storyline - to life.

I found the film engaging throughout, but felt it tried too hard to transform itself to an action/adventure film halfway through. The introduction of Jude Law's entertaining robotic gigolo (Gigolo Joe) saw a lapse in the continuity of the storyline and roughly half an hour of your life is wasted watching irrelevant material. Without this section of film, the film would have been slow-paced throughout, lacking in the necessary entertainment of this section, but I felt it detracted too far from the main storyline.

I would class this film as one of the greatest emotional studies of all time in cinema. The relatable complications and prevalent themes throughout mean I would strongly recommend everyone watches this film... once.

A. I. Artificial Intelligence on IMDB

My rating:


Next up:
The Accidental Tourist

Saturday 29 January 2011

My first Blog Post

Many of you will have found your way here either from my Facebook page or my brother’s blog.
If you are a follower of my brother’s blog, there are a few things you will need to know in advance before reading mine:
It will be opinionated, angry and probably cause offence to everyone. I will of course try to tone this down, but it is in my nature to speak my mind whether or not anyone likes what I have to say. If you think this is something you will enjoy, by all means stay. If this is something you won’t, “nut up or shut up”.

The reason for this blog is so that I can post my reviews on the Empire 500 (The Definitive List) - a list compiled by Empire Magazine of supposedly of the greatest 500 films ever made. Personally, I am a bit sceptical of the sanity of the people at Empire having read through the list, but I’m going into it with an open mind and hopefully I will learn a thing or two about cinema.

I am hoping to als set up a Vlog of my comments and clips of the films so that you can get some more idea of why I hold such

There are a series of rules that the two of us have to follow, and these are:
  • Each film must be reviewed after it has been watched. The review will give my personal interpretation on the film. The review will link to The Internet Movie Database, Empire and any other articles on the film that I think are interesting.
  • The list will be watched in alphabetical order. This is different to a couple of other people who have set themselves the same challenge.
  • Each film will be bought as a DVD. Each film will be bought as a DVD to keep consistency regarding picture and sound.
  • Every film must be watched in order to accomplish the challenge - including those that I have seen previously.