Review #6 Iron Man 3

Hey guys, back to the regular reviews after spending a little time talking about one of my favourite movies, The Fall, and this time it’s a review of Iron Man 3. With the incredible resurgence of superhero movies over the past decade, starting with the first Bryan Singer X-Men way back in 2000, it was only a matter of time until a superhero film popped up in my reviews. It’s just a shame that the first one had to be the most recent Iron Man outing, it had a lot to live up to after the success of The Avengers and even more to make up for after the Iron Man 2, which left a lot to be desired. Oh well, on to the review…

19/08/13

26/07/13

Iron Man 3, what do I say about Iron Man 3? I definitely didn’t hate it but by no means did I love it, at all, it was pretty much completely fine. You all know the character so I don’t need to go too much into it, Tony Stark is back solo again post The Avengers and it’s a much more personal movie this time. He’s not invincible and he can definitely be hurt, this movie does a good job of conveying that humanity, I suppose.

Directed by Shane Black of whom I am a big fan, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was awesome and hilarious, and he tries to bring a lot of that humour in to Iron Man 3 with varying results. A lot of Tony’s dialogue with other characters and clever one-liners were funny enough as you should expect them to be but the whole film just felt lacking. The rest of the cast is back and they all do a decent enough job, I’m going to into spoilers a bit here but I don’t think they’re bad enough to warrant tags so sue me. The Guy-Pearce-Ben-Kingsley-villain-switcheroo was so completely unsurprising or shocking but the humour of having the out of character Mandarin was pretty enjoyable.

The action picks up towards the end with the multiple suits coming in and all kinds of ridiculous shit going on which was at least a little bit thrilling, to be honest I’m glad that **SPOILER** Tony destroyed all the suits at the conclusion **SPOILER** because I felt like if there are so many of them it basically takes away from Tony being special but I guess he’s got his genius level intelligence to lean back on which is the real super power. Don’t ask me why I put spoilers here but not previously, this whole review has become a sloppy mess and is divulging into rambling.

The movie did manage to hold my interest for the majority of the time and I enjoyed seeing the character broken down a bit and humanised but I think it could have been handled in a more effective way. In the end, Iron Man 3 was fine, I’d have been disappointed if I had paid money to see it and I was expecting a little more. The first film was so much fun and they lost their way in the second, I was hoping with the introduction of Shane Black behind the camera they might find their way back but they didn’t quite make it all the way.

5.6 out of 10. If you’re invested in the Marvel universe then watch it for the sake of continuity. The post credit scene was pretty amusing though and justified the whole voice over thing. How this movie managed to rake in $1.2 billion is upsetting…

In addition to the challenge…Favourite movies and a review of The Fall

I’ve been enjoying this movie review challenge a lot so far but I feel like there’s some small aspect lacking. By restricting myself to only reviewing new films, that I have never seen before, I’m not able to share with you all many movies that I feel deserve to be seen and talked about. So here’s what I’m going to do about it, for every five regular movie reviews that I do as part of my challenge, I’m going to pick one of my favourite movies from my Flickchart top 100 list (I’ve spoken to a lot of people about Flickchart now but, for anyone who’s managed to escape my adoration for this website up until now, I’ll do another post dedicated to it later). I’ve already picked said 20, each of them for their own reasons but the one thing that connects them all are that they’re movies I can watch anytime, anywhere and any number of times without ever tiring of them. When I write about them, I need to stress that it will be in no particular order and there will not be my standard rating out of 10 given at the end. Why, you may ask…because that’s what I’ve decided to do and I imagine it would be like asking a parent to pick their favourite child, only, picking a favourite movie is immeasurably more difficult.

To kick things off I’ve gone with The Fall (2006) Directed by Tarsem Singh, the reason being is that I just picked it up on blu-ray recently and wanted to experience it in all of it’s stunning 1080p HD glory. The Fall seems like an apt place to start this list seeing as how it is a movie about movies, a film about the art of storytelling and the things that you can accomplish through the cinematic medium. That is fundamentally why we choose to watch films, to witness epic stories of heroes and villains and also to be reduced to a state of child-like wonder where everything is a curiosity and the most mundane things can be awe-inspiring. The Fall definitely does all this, from the beautifully shot opening credit sequence of the black and white train stunt set to the tune of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, you know this film will be a well crafted labour of love.

Set in a Los Angeles hospital in the 1920’s we’re introduced to Alexandria, a rather precocious little girl with a broken arm and a very inquisitive nature. A message she writes accidentally floats into the wrong room and lands on the lap of Roy Walker, a Hollywood stuntman who is paralysed from the waist down following a stunt gone wrong. The film rests upon the relationship between Roy and Alexandria, her complete innocence and naivety coupled with his utter despair and depression results in some of the most compelling and believable exchanges between two characters I have seen on screen. Possibly because she is so young, her acting abilities are less to do with her skills as an actress and more to do with the fact that she simply reacted to the scenarios that were presented to her and went along with them in a charming and completely natural fashion.

Roy begins to tell her fantastical stories of heroes, bandits and revenge, and these stories are populated with the people around them, seeping into the world of the story as Roy crafts a tale made to ensure Alexandria stays around long enough to accomplish his ulterior motives. Her vivid imagination is translated to the screen in the most stunning way imaginable, director Tarsem travelled around the world to capture some of the most beautiful landscapes imaginable and each image is filled with such vibrant colours that it’s hard to accept that these places really exist. In this regard I can accept some people’s complaints that the movie is rather self indulgent and a little too much style and too little substance, there’s no doubt that the visual feel and scope of the film play a very important role but, I would dispute that it in any way detracts from the narrative. Those elements of the film serve as an elaborate (granted a very very elaborate) way to allow us to join in along on the epic story which Alexandria is experiencing.

I hesitate to say too much more about what actually happens in the film so that anyone who has not seen it can enjoy it with having too much of it spoiled by me, but what I can talk more about is the wonderful use of transitions into the world of the story, many of which are incredibly well shot, creative and memorable. Watching on blu-ray was so worth it because the colours in this film are something to be appreciated in their own right. I am more than willing to acknowledge that some of the acting is a little comical at times but it fits perfectly with the fantasy elements for me and will bring an enormous smile to the face of anybody happy to go along with it. However, the moments of true emotion balance this out nicely and there are several long and heartbreaking minutes where all hope seems lost and you begin to wonder if a happy ending is on the cards.

Hopefully that goes some way to explaining why I chose to include The Fall on my list of 20 absolute favourites. To be quite honest it was a toss up between this and Pans Labyrinth, both have many similar elements despite being drastically different in terms of their execution but I think that Pans Labyrinth is a much more commonly known film and I’d like to draw some attention to a movie that I like to share with people any time I can. I love it in spite of some of it’s flaws and sometimes because of those very flaws but as I said before, it’s the relationship between Roy and Alexandria that truly makes this a memorable film. Where the innocent affection of youth, untainted by cynicism is able to triumph over life’s bitterness and resentfulness.

Thanks for reading anyone who made it this far and I’ll be back to posting more regular 100movies365days reviews soon. Here’s one of my favourite shots from the film as a reward.

Review #5 Untouchable

It’s 2 in the afternoon and I haven’t yet had breakfast so I won’t say much here other than enjoy the review and if anyone has any feedback about the reviews that I’m writing then I would really love to hear what you think of them.

17/08/13

26/07/13

Untouchable is a fantastic film based around the relationship of two people who should have never met. Continuing in my trend of foreign language reviews I’m back to France, Paris to be specific. I flat out loved this movie, it was incredibly charming, funny and heart-warming.

Driss, Omar Sy, comes across an incredibly wealthy paraplegic aristocrat while trying to get some papers signed in order to collect benefits from the state. Philippe, Francois Cluzet, hires Driss for reasons unknown to us, likely because he was interested in someone so different to those he is usually forced to interact with. Everything else in this movie is essentially irrelevant, the centre point of Untouchable is the entertaining back and forth relationship between these two characters.

The performances from both leads are completely amazing and so much fun to watch, the subject matter may be hard but it’s dealt with in such a way that makes it accessible and doesn’t lead us to just feel pity for Philippe, or Driss and all the hardships he has to face. I wouldn’t exactly call it a comedy despite the fact it is hilarious throughout, I’m talking laugh-out-loud funny.

One minor complaint would be that, even though the relationship between them grows interestingly, the individual characters have no real development. They pretty much finish how they started, I suppose I was fine with this though.

8.2 Like I said it’s funny, charming and heart-warming. Just go ahead and watch it already.

Review #4 Memories of Murder

Watching Memories of Murder is a great reminder of why you shouldn’t delay getting around to things that you’ve been meaning to do for a long time. Expectations tend to build to unreasonable heights and very rarely does anything live up to or exceed expectations. Memories of Murder had been on my watchlist for a good few years before I finally got around to it and there was so much that I had imaged it would be, it could never be everything I had wanted. So when you decide you want to do something, just do it, putting things off never helps.

14/08/13

26/07/13

Memories of Murder is so many things all at once; meandering, darkly comedic, tense and beautiful. I should preface this by saying that I’m a huge fan of South Korean cinema and Memories of Murder has been on my to watch list for quite some time so, as you can imagine I was greatly looking forward to it. Set in rural South Korea in 1986 we watch the progression of a serial killer investigation.

It was honestly not what I was expecting, which was a more thoughtful and brutal movie but, that isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it. Detective’s Park Doo-Man and Cho Yong-koo, police officers with drastically and hilarious different methods of investigation (as exemplified in the scene where the two meet and one attempts to beat up the other) are on the case of a murderer who targets beautiful women in very specific way.

A string of suspects come and go with no luck in getting closer to the true culprit and the way in which we see the development of the detective’s anger and frustration feels very real and true to their characters. The interrogation scenes are frightening unexpectedly hilarious thanks in part to a third, fairly insane, officer and his willingness to physically assault people with flying kicks (which are fairly commonplace here) at the drop of a hat.

The plot moves along at it’s own pace and, depending on who you ask, reaches a satisfying conclusion but along the way is a great cinematic experience with some wonderful performances and beautiful cinematography of a somewhat bleak area of South Korea. Sadly, I wasn’t a tremendous fan of the score which was occasionally a little heavy handed but not enough to detract from the film.

7.4 out of 10. Didn’t live up to all I hoped but still a very solid movie never the less.

Review # 3 Dans la Maison

I like to think of myself as being pretty on the ball when it comes to knowing about interesting new films, usually I’ll be tracking movies that fascinate while they’re still in the pre-production phase so I’m a little upset with myself when great movies manage to fly under my radar and I never hear about them. Luckily Netflix has got me covered with their ever growing film catalogue so that I’m able to hear about brilliant movies such as Dans la Maison. 

07/08/13

26/07/13

Dans la Maison, which translates to In the House, is a superb, quirky and intriguing thriller of which I had heard nothing about until 5 minutes before I watched it. Fabrice Luchini plays Germain, a high school literature teacher who takes an interest in a young student after reading an essay of his that stands out amongst the drudgery of the other pupils.

It was a complete delight to watch and was riveting from start to finish. The plot moves at a gentle and yet somewhat relentless pace as the student, Claude, continues to write about immersing himself in the house of an “ordinary” and “normal” classmate. He acts as a voyeur and as he does so his teacher Germain is keen to develop his writing skills causing him to get caught up in the stories that Claude writes. Never sure if they are real or are simply Claude’s mysterious and beguiling imagination, Germain’s professional and personal life are put in jeopardy.

The techniques through which we see the stories Claude writes of the Rapha family and the middle class mother are very interesting to watch and clever, without appearing to try too hard to be so. On to the score which compliments the constant development of the intrigue, the strings rise at key moments and draw you in to film without you even realising.

I’m a huge fan of films where an old master takes a young protégé under their wings, combine that with the elements of a thriller, sterling performances and an fascinating story then you have the makings a great film.

7.7 out of 10. Forgot to mention that this is a French Film and therefore it obviously has subtitles, though with dialogue driven movies subtitles seem enhance the experience.

Review #2 Cedar Rapids

Following up Barton Fink with a movie like Cedar Rapids should go some way to showing that I’m not going to be targeting only a small limited range of films. I’m open to and appreciate damn near every genre, except for horror, horror movies and I have never really seen eye to eye but hopefully I can change that a little. Especially if you guys have any great horror recommendations for my next review.

30/07/13

26/07/13

Cedar Rapids was perfectly suited for the time of day I watched, 4pm on a Tuesday afternoon with nothing to do and time to kill. That sentence alone tells you much of what you need to know about Miguel Arteta’s 2011 comedy.

Ed Helms stars as Tim Lippe, a very naive and somewhat sheltered insurance salesman from small town middle America. After his colleague passes away while subjecting himself to a little spot of auto erotic asphyxia, Lippe is called upon to represent the firm at an insurance convention in Cedar Rapids. Pressure is put upon him to secure the double diamond award for the 4th year running.

Helms teams up with John C. Reilly and a few others including an obligatory love interest in Anne Heche and he becomes exposed to a world or drinking, wedding crashing and a brief encounter with crack cocaine. While it is formulaic there’s enough laughs that it doesn’t matter and at it’s core are a group of characters that are fun and relatable.

There are a few laugh out loud moments that play off Helm’s social naivety or Reilly’s vulgarity and also the deadpan delivery Isiah Whitlock Jr. as he expresses his passion for HBO series The Wire.Cedar Rapids left me with nothing to complain about and in that regard it did it’s job fine.

6.2 out of 10. If you have some time to kill and fancy a giggle then, by all means, knock yourself out.

Review #1 Barton Fink

These first couple of reviews are from a few months ago and I’m not abundantly happy with how they turned out but I won’t change anything in them. The two dates written at the beginning are the date that I wrote the review and the date that I started the challenge. 

26/07/13

26/07/13

Barton Fink is, if nothing else, certainly an interesting film which was a pleasure to watch, despite the fact it often seemed to drag a bit in places it always held my attention. It follows Barton Fink played by John Turturro, a young playwright who moves from New York to Los Angeles to write for “the pictures”.

From the first shot to the last this is undeniably a Coen brothers movie, Joel and Ethan have their grubby paws all over this however the style is not quite as clean and refined as some of their later films such as Fargo or The Big Lebowski. Fink encounters an array of quirky and fast talking characters in the movie business but, forms a bond with his next door neighbour at The Earle Hotel, Charlie Meadows (John Goodman).

The long drawn out shots of the incredibly depressing hotel corridor lined on both sides with shoes waiting to be polished establishes the sense of loneliness in the film as Fink struggles to write a wrestling B-movie. The dialogue is fantastic as one would expect from the Coen’s but occasionally feels a little too insincere and we get an idea of what the character is supposed to represent rather than who they actually are.

Confusing and bewildering events transpire that raise questions about the “reality” of Fink’s world but it fits with the style of all that precedes it and it’s interesting to consider whether or not John Goodman is the Devil and Hotel Earle is hell.

It was fun for me to see how the Coen brothers style has developed from watching Barton Fink however it doesn’t quite hit all the right notes, or perhaps it does, just not in the right order. It still was intriguing with plenty or witty dialogue and more than a few things to ponder about afterwards.

6.5 out of 10 Which is perhaps a little harsh and will increase after repeat viewing.

The challenge!

A little while ago I found a great little subreddit called 100movies365days where the aim is pretty much what the name would suggest, watch 100 new films over the course of a year and write a review for each one. One important factor is that they have to be films that are new to you, no reviewing movies that you’ve already seen before. So I’ll kick things off with a few reasons as to why I’m doing this.

My entire life I’ve been a movie addict, consuming films at every opportunity and trying to expand my film knowledge, I’d fake being sick so I could stay home and watch the original Star Wars movies that I had on VHS for the 100th time. Or if I was feeling bold I’d go for Lord of the Rings trilogy and knock them out back to back in a 9 hour sitting. I had every line of Shrek down after the 4th viewing and would quote it constantly. The first time I attempted to buy a movie for myself failed miserably, 9 years old in Woolworths (which has itself failed miserably since then) I tried to pick up a copy of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon that was rated 12. Leaving the store feeling bitterly disappointed after being refused to be sold a copy I went back to my Grandmothers house, where I was spending the weekend, to haul her in as reinforcements. I didn’t even hang around to play with my lego, that’s how desperately I wanted this film and I marched her down there to buy it for me, and a Beano while she was at it.

Eventually I started to think that one day I’d like to make movies of my own and would fantasise about what camera I would buy if I had the money and what stories I would tell with it. Upon realizing, much to my dismay, that I had no real discernible talents and after opting to study physics at university instead of a creative subject I kind of gave up on that dream. But now I find myself thinking, if I’m not personally capable of creating pieces of cinema, then why not simply spend my time criticising and critiquing the attempts of others. That sounds like the logical step, way less hassle and much more my speed. 

Normally what happens when I set myself any sort of goal is that I’ll give up after a few days, maybe a week if I’m lucky, but with this I really want to follow through on it and see it through to the end so that’s why I’ve made this blog to make sure that I finish it. Give it a read if you have some time spare, if I know there are people reading it then it’s much more of an incentive to carry on doing it. Until now I had been posting these only to reddit but I’m finding my motivation dwindling after a very impressive 2 month streak, so I’m going to carry it on here as well. I’m already up to review number 18 so I’ll post all of the previous reviews as well. The start date was the 26th of July 2013 making the finish date exactly a year from that time. So let’s do this…

Josh.