Some quick film reviews

Catching up on some movies from the last couple of months.



No Country For Old Men

A crime thriller and chase movie I guess. Lots of weird and interesting characters. It's a Coen Brothers film, and probably one of the best and the most accessible I've seen - not quite as crazy as some others, and with a plot that is easy to follow. The best thing about the film are the characters and how they are portrayed, and there are some great performances. Highly recommended, but it is quite brutal and also quite dark - don't expect the film to cheer you up :)


The Golden Compass

Both Steph and I have read the trilogy of books - His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman - so we were looking forward to the movie. I was kind of disappointed though. Despite an excellent cast and good special effects, something about the film just didn't engage me. I found a lot of the characters unsympathetic, and so did not care too much about what happened to them. I wasn't emotionally involved like I was when reading the book. I've heard the movie didn't do so well, but I hope they continue to make the other books as movies - perhaps they'll do a better job on the next one.


Atonement

Steph read the book a while ago, and loved it, so she practically dragged me to this film. I knew little or nothing about it. Keira Knightley annoyed me as usual - I think she's overrated - but generally the performances were very good, especially Romola Garai. The story told in the film was engaging and exceptionally sad. It was a really good film though.


I Am Legend

I'm a big fan of the book by Richard Matheson, so I was interested to see how the film would be handled. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. The film makes a number of changes, but they all seem to work to make it more exciting to watch - a movie made straight from the book would have been nowhere near as much fun. The special effects were excellent, and reminded me a lot of I, Robot, which was no surprise when I checked and found it was the same effects company. The movie relies a lot more on scary jumps than I expected, rather than being a straightforward action film. I think that may have spoilt it for Steph a little. Also, there is a completely unnecessary car advert sequence at the beginning of the film that spoils the first ten minutes and makes no sense at all. Just stick with it, wipe the start from your mind, and everything will be fine. I wouldn't recommend the movie to everyone, but if you like sci-fi or horror I think you'd like this.


Cloverfield

I was quite excited about this film ever since I saw the teaser trailer. I liked the fact that I didn't know much about the film before I saw it - I think that added to the fun. Yes, there is far too much shaky-cam - don't sit anywhere near the front of the cinema or you will be sick. The characters are rather self-absorbed and not particularly likeable, but I think that's the point to some extent. What the film does really well is put you in the midst of a crazy disaster movie, where you never know what is going to happen next. It was a real thrill ride, with some scary moments (like the subway bit). I've heard varying opinions about this movie, but I think if you like sci-fi or monster films then you'll probably like this a lot. Oh yeah, and the special effects are fantastic - seamless and completely believable.

Birthdays, and Whistler

There's been quite a bit happening since my last post. Lots of birthdays this month so far, including my sister and me, Steph's sister and her dad. Phew. A big happy birthday to all of us!

Last weekend we spent a long weekend in Whistler with some friends, which was brilliant. There was no sun unfortunately, but lots of snow. The conditions for skiing and snowboarding were excellent, and all the "thrillseekers" had more than their fix. Steph had a great time. I did lots of snowshoeing - three days in a row in fact. For a change, I wasn't alone either - I had a friend to accompany me on each day which was cool. It was great to get away and forget about everything, and there was so much fresh air and exercise - fantastic. Makes you want to quit your office job for sure. Some of our friends took Rock Band along with them too, and there was much rejoicing.

I didn't do anything big for my birthday, but I did go out that night with some friends for a few drinks. We have this thing where we go out for booze on the same night that the wives / girlfriends have their book club meeting. It's only once a month, but this time happened to fall on my birthday. The rest of this week has been spent trying to catch up on sleep after Whistler. One of our friends from the UK has moved to Vancouver, and arrived this week, so we went out for food together last night which was cool.

That meal will be our last out for a little while. Today, we are starting on a detox for a week. Both Steph and I felt we've been eating too much crap recently and that it isn't doing us much good, so it felt like time. We've prepared pretty well and cooked a bunch of meals already, so it shouldn't be such a chore with food preparation as it has been in the past. The first time we did it, we were sick of chopping raw vegetables by the end. On the second go, we didn't even follow the rules strictly, and ended up quitting early. This time hopefully, we'll do it properly.

Got a busy weekend of boring stuff ahead - housework, paperwork, that kind of thing. The weather forecast says sun for tomorrow though which will be nice - we'll have to find an excuse to get out. If I find any time, I'll try to get some photos together from Whistler and upload them this week.