The Film Hub

Film Of The Week: Limitless(2011)

2011-04-02T04:48:00.000-07:00

Plot

So after popping some NZT I am setting about writing one of the best, well crafted, poetic and brilliant film reviews ever written! But no, in all seriousness Neil Burger’s Limitless is quickly becoming the Inception of 2011 with it’s over stylised visuals and what appears to have become Hollywood’s idea of a thought provoking, challenging and enigmatic narrative. Limitless a story of drug abuse with a difference, Eddie Morra sees the Hangover star Bradley Cooper in a very different role as he discovers a drug that allows his brain to operate at 100% of its potential but like all good things, this comes at a price.

Trailer

Review

I guess where I stand on this film is that it was good and watchable, but in terms of the hype surrounding the film I would say it is thoroughly overrated and in terms of the potential such an interesting narrative had, falls short of reaching the high standard of film it was capable of becoming. It was upon hearing the concept for the film that I felt the urge to watch and partly due to the strong casting of Cooper and seasoned veteran De Niro which surprisingly lead to an on screen chemistry between the two that worked well creating a compelling and believable father and son like relationship, overall the acting was very convincing in this film and it was enjoyable to see Cooper given the chance to undertake a serious role for a change. The film kept me interested to a certain extent but for all the twists and turns along the way the ending was disappointingly obvious from the start of the film, making the comparison too Christopher Nolan’s Inception once again, the thing that left me satisfied after viewing that film was the doubt and uncertainty the audience was left with however Limitless just seems like a bad cliché ending to a Disney film where everyone lives happily ever after. Visually as expected the film was brilliant with the use of a high standard of Mise en Scene and the Infinite zoom that spans the vast expansive streets of New York City continuously with no edits making it one of the most powerful and impressive shots in cinema. Overall I think my only fault with this film and perhaps the reason behind me being so critical and cynical about it is the ending like I mentioned above it was very disappointing but ultimately the film was reasonably and surprisingly good.

Rating

Onwards to the highlight of everyone’s week! My rating of Limitless would probably have to be 8/10 which is me being generous and trying to look past my own prejudices about bad endings in films in general. Get down to your cinema while you still can and give this film a watch as it is definitely something that has to be seen in the big screen simply for the stunning visuals a personal recommendation however is leave 5 minutes before the end since you will no doubt by that point already know what is going to happen, That is all till next week!

True Grit(2010) and my cynical thoughts on remakes!

2011-02-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

Plot

True Grit! That’s right the Coen Brothers have got their hands on this classic western and poked it around a considerable amount with their characteristically high stylistic film making whilst drapes of subtle well placed humour riddle the film throughout. I will consider for a moment that you have not seen the original and for the sake of this review will not simply explain the plot as ‘It is sorta like the first one but new’. True Grit is the story of a Young girl played by the fresh new acting talent Hailee Steinfeld, whose Father is murdered by the Infamous outlaw Tom Chaney, In Turn the young girl enlists the Help of a US Marshal to help track down her father’s killer and bring him to justice.

Trailer

Review

Like many other Coen Brother films True Grit maintains a high standard of professionalism and boasts some of Hollywood’s most bankable actors to date such as Matt Damon and Jeff Bridges making it a sure fire hit at the box office at the very least. I would like to firstly break the habit of many other film viewers I have come across recently who mindlessly blurt that because a film is made by a prestigious director such as the Coen Brothers that it automatically hailed as being the shiny gold plated reincarnation of baby Jesus in film form. No, this is not the case and in fact I was considerably disappointed with the overall feel of True Grit, is it a good film? Well it certainly isn’t the worst film I have ever clocked eyes upon but it most defiantly does not justify the remake of what could be considered the one of the best westerns made.

So why am I being so hard on this Film? The film itself is not bad and has considerable merit to speak of, high quality acting talent, well shot, captivating mise en scene, and a great script however none of this was able to take my mind away from the small matter of it being a remake! From my experience film directors should learn to leave the past in the past with very few exceptions most remakes never fully live up to the original. What I would have preferred to see in place of this is the Coen Brothers breathe life into the Western genre which is arguably died out in recent years with fewer and fewer good western films emerging by creating a film that is new and innovative with a unique concept, narrative and vision. Instead we got a remake of a film that was already very good.

Rating

I am going to break this rating down into 2 different conclusions, let us consider for a moment that this film is not a remake. I would give True Grit(2010) a generous 7/10, This film definitely will not be the worst 1hour and 50minutes you spend should you decide to watch it, The film is touching, easy to follow and dare I even say that the high action fight sequences make it exciting?

Now back to reality, the film is a remake and due to my own prejudices I feel like I need to be slightly more harsh with the way in which I rate it so I will bump my rating of this film down to a 4/10 for its disappointing lack of innovation from two Directors usually praised for their unique film making in films such as The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading and No Country for Old Men. Head onto Amazon or down to your local film shop and try to pick up a copy of the original, In no way would I want to discourage you from watching the Coen Brothers version however watch them both back to back, You may be surprised with what ‘dated’ and older cinema has to offer.

Film Of The Week: Monsters (2010)

2011-02-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

So along with trying to post more film reviews I am going to start a 'Film of the Week' thread. In doing this I will reccomend a film to watch, rate it out of 10 and try to give abit of information on it. Shorter than a Review but long enough to make it worth checking out!

Plot

So this weeks film is Monsters(2010) Directed by the relitivley unkown Gareth Edwards. Although Edwards has not particularly had any noteable film achivements Monsters could be said to be somewhat groundbreaking in the way we see films made in the future. The film documnents the journey of a journalist enlisted to escort his boss' daughter across an 'infected' zone in the north of Mexico following an alien invasion 6years in the future.

Trailer

Intresting Facts:
Monsters has gained much attention from the film zeitgeist due to the nature in which it was made. With only a budget of $500,000 for production costs (a drop in the ocean when compared to similar projects) it fell to director Gareth Edwards who arguably single handily made the film from the comfort of his own home doing all the CGI, Directing and Writing himself. So perhaps this style of film making could be the next breakthrough in the way films are produced as technology software and hardware become more affordable more projects like these may start to appear.
When compared to other films of a similar genre the scale in difference of budgets really starts to emerge, where as previously JJ Abram’s Cloverfield was regarded as being a sci-fi epic that transcended budget constraints to make a great film that was as convincing as the highest budget Hollywood films Monsters shows just what exactly can be done on a low budget.

War Of The Worlds: $132,000,000 (Production Costs)
Cloverfield: $22,000,000 (Production Costs)
Monsters: $500,000 (Production Costs)

Rating

I would Give this film an 8/10 despite the somewhat generic narrative the budget constraints for this film warrant it considerable merit and all in all the film was compelling at moments and impressed with the focus on the Human story of the cast more so than the action aspects seen in many other Alien Invasion thrillers.

American History X

2010-11-04T08:25:00.000-07:00

Let the right one in

2009-11-04T17:18:00.000-08:00

Let the right one in is the story of an unfortunate boy Oskar whose parents are separated and is consistently bullied by his slightly evil classmates at school with quite brutal consequences. Events escalate and in the mean time a strange and mysterious girl called Eli that hates the sun and doesn’t eat moves in next door to Oskar and she teaches him how to hit back against his tormentors. Oskar must overcome his fear of Eli once he discovers she needs to drink blood to survive in order for their romance to blossom. Let the right one in when first shown took observers at Film festivals by surprise and critics claimed the film was innovative in terms of breaking the generic conventions of horror.

Being somewhat new to the whole concept of ‘World cinema’ and the sudden realisation of ‘What there are films outside of Hollywood?’ I was initially sceptical about going to see Let the right one in but also excited to see what new dimensions Film makers outside of the commercial constraints of mainstream Hollywood cinema could bring to the creation of a film. Horror as a genre normally has a fairly standard set of conventions presented to a mainstream audience presumably to make as much profit as possible with the tried and tested narrative of good versus bad. Tomas Alfredson’s much to my pleasure did not disappoint, I found let the right one in to be a much deeper and complex film in terms of Narrative and overall character profile.

I found when watching Let the right one in that although world cinema differentiates itself from Hollywood many traits of a Hollywood film can still be found in it and is the case with the few other ‘world cinema’ films I have seen. Firstly the typical traits of a of a romantic Romeo and Juliet style narrative is a very prominent theme that runs throughout the film as the characters of Oskar and Eli struggle to come to terms with their feelings for each other and are restricted by the small fact of Eli being a vampire. This bares a strong reflection to the complicated circumstances that can be found in society today as social class, race, religion and gender often cause problems for couples to be ‘socially acceptable’ due to certain beliefs held within a small segment of society that have created certain stereotypes about an idealistic relationship. A good example of a Hollywood narrative that resembles the same themes seen in Let the right one in would perhaps be that of the arguably overly successful Twilight franchise.

In terms of returning to the Horror genre the film breaks conventions as there are no specific forces for good or bad. The characters of Oskar and Eli are both very deep and complicated as they dance over the fine line between good and bad, this makes it very difficult to determine the outcome of the film as it could go either way and a happy ending is not guaranteed which is a major difference in contrast to similar Hollywood films which normally end with some state of Equilibrium. The character of Oskar is clearly a very troubled and tormented young boy which influences many of his actions throughout the film; we first see him talking to himself with a knife in his hand clearly showing a state of mental instability as he is confused to what is considered to be acceptable social behaviour. As a protagonist Oskar differs from the norm as his motives and emotions are somewhat hidden from the audience through certain points of the film which provokes thought and also opens up the possibility for the narrative to go in different directions.

The character of Eli also contains many complexities as we soon discover she is not the innocent little girl she seems and is more likely to be around the young age of 200 so the fact she is portrayed to be in love with a 12 year old boy is a theme that may be considered taboo in Hollywood cinema. Perhaps the title ‘world cinema’ allows more creative freedom for directors to explore issues such as this.

Without getting ‘listy’ about the themes and conventions characteristic of horror films there are several to be observed in Let the right one in such as the theme of death and blood which plays of common anxieties about the vulnerability of the human body and the mental state of ordinary seeming people which makes the film successful in provoking fear in the audience which is always helpful in contributing to the success of a horror film.

To add a one sided conclusion to the above would be difficult as I believe the film brilliant as it is and as segregated from Hollywood still has many of the base traits found in a Hollywood horror film however It is much more successful in building anticipation and has a very thought provoking narrative and if this film was made in Hollywood you can be almost certain it would contain more explosions and rugged looking action heroes so the very fact Tomas Alfredson strays from this makes the film a welcome change and a very enjoyable watch.

Shallow Grave review

2009-10-16T09:17:00.000-07:00

Shallow grave (1994) is a British financed film directed by Danny Boyle and was his first major commercial success in the British film industry. The film was financed by film four international and the Glasgow film fund. Danny Boyle’s contribution of Shallow grave and Trainspotting helped breathe new life into an industry that was previously shrinking. Shallow grave takes 3 ordinary independent working people; David Stephens (Christopher Ecleston) Alex law (Ewan McGregor) and Juliet Miller (Kerry Fox) .Danny Boyle puts them into a disastrous situation in which the unavoidable disease of greed spreads over them which causes the three characters to resort to actions that very few film makers could make as moving and realistic as Danny Boyle.

‘Take trust for instance or friendship these are the important things in life; these are the things that matter, that help you on your way. If you can’t trust your friends then what then? What then?’ is a reassuring quote from the opening voice over of the film by the character of David Stephens which in many ways bares is presence throughout the film as we begin to discover what exactly is meant by this. The narrative sees the three flatmates in search for a new addition to their idealic life in their perfect flat so as you can imagine their new perfect flatmate has to be something quite impressive as they go through a rigorous process of mocking and humiliating the candidates until they are left with their fantastic druggie murdering flat mate because after all who wouldn’t want one of those?

The events that follow see the three original flatmates faced with a difficult decision as their morality conflicts with their endless greed for material possessions, this strongly reflects on the priorities of modern day society and although made over ten years ago is probably even more relevant today as the figures for greed motivated crime such as robbery have rocketed recently showing a lack of contentment for what is obtainable via moral jobs and ways of life. Jealousy is also a very prominent issue in the film although not as clearly displayed as greed, we still see the characters motives and ambition change in relation to the distribution of the money, the once ambitious character David is reduced to hiding in a loft and killing the odd drug dealer that comes looking for ‘his’ money and a love triangle between David Alex and Juliet spirals out of control effecting the overall outcome of the film. This reflects on today’s society as people are more and more jealous of people with a better car, job, house, family or girlfriend which ultimately does result in greed and high value of materialistic goods seen in the film.

My overall opinion of the film was very positive and I personally believe that to date is one of Danny Boyle’s best films as the Narrative perfectly conceals the enigmatic ending of the film. The gripping scenes of Gore mixed with the ones of Romance and comedy had me on the edge of my seat wondering what possible ending would surface ending the torment of the characters, all victims of unfortunate circumstances. The film however is not flawless and can be quite tedious at times and events leading up the climatic ending seem quite un-realistic at best. I would highly recommend this film to any avid film viewers and any fans of Danny Boyles other films as I would personally say is a mash up of Trainspotting 28days later and Slumdog millionaire in terms of themes and messages.

This is England

2009-09-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

This Is England is the story of a summertime school holiday, those long weeks between terms where life-changing events can take place. It’s 1983 and school is out. 12-year-old Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is an isolated lad growing up in a grim coastal town, whose father has died fighting in the Falklands War. Over the course of the summer holiday he finds fresh male role models when those in the local skinhead scene take him in. With his new friends Shaun discovers a world of parties, first love and the joys of Dr Marten boots. Here he meets Combo (Stephen Graham), an older, racist skinhead who has recently got out of prison. As Combo’s gang harass the local ethnic minorities, the course is set for a rite of passage that will hurl Shaun from innocence to experience.

As one of the leading British film makers to date Shane meadows does well in exploring British society in his hit film ‘this is England’ looking at themes of violence, masculinity, working class community and racial diversity. Not only does he do well in portraying these issues and the effects they had on life in the 80s he also makes it very easy for the audience to see relate to these problems as many of them still exist in everyday life in 2008.

One of the main ideas that underline the very basis of this is England is the theme of violence, in the very first scene we see main character (twelve year old Shaun) immediately engage in conflict firstly between the shop keeper and then fights with older boys at school who pick Shaun out because of the way he looks and the poverty he lives in. The film gains in intensity from the start to the finish as the character of combo comes onto the scene the scale of violence and aggression jumps from 1-10 as he immediately sets about converting the old gang to into turning against the local ethnic minorities harassing them and worse. At first we think that combos character is just your ordinary skinhead 1980s raciest however as his character is developed so to is the way the audience sees him, if observed closely enough Combo is portrayed as someone with a deep and rooted longing to belong and is jealous of anyone who has a happy family as we see at the end of the film. Combo sees in Shaun a younger and more innocent version of himself and takes Shaun under his wing teaching him the way of the skinhead. At the end of the film the character of milky is talking about his wonderful family and something inside combo snaps immediately returning to his violent self beats Milky to death.

This is England is a very male dominated film and with the exception of the of Shaun’s mother, Lol and Smell the rest of the characters in the film fall easily into the category of a 1980s dominant male. In the film most of the women we see that are associated with the skinhead gang have short shaven hair and although this is mainly a fashion statement also gives them a side of masculinity and sense of belonging in a male dominated culture.

Poverty and the title ‘working class community’ is something that belongs hand in hand in relation to the 1980s provoking violence and prejudice in this certain group. We see when Shaun confronts his mother about why he was being bullied we find out he comes from a poor family and his father was killed in the Falkland’s. The film unravels and Shaun gains acceptance to a group of skinheads who kit him out in the entire skinhead uniform from the Ben Sherman shirt to the Dr Marten boots. Skinheads are in many ways considered to be the cream of the crop in the skinhead community, if you had what it took to be a skinhead you were considered ‘different’ and with that came the power to make people fear you and at the same time belong to a gang of friends with similar views and opinions.

Racism is the one thing the ties all the other issues raised in this is England together, all the characters portrayed in this is England are working class wither they are Skin heads or ethnic minorities however the violence that takes place is directed towards the local ethnic minorities in random acts of harassment violence and bullying. Combo is in many ways the ‘lead racist’ in this film recruiting gang members to join in with his raciest actions. At one point in the film Combo asks milk ‘are you British or are you English?’ separating the two different cultures and highlighting what Combo is driven by. Combo is jealous of the close bonds that certain ethnic families share having missed out on it in his own life this is what leads him to snap when he hears Milky talking about his wonderful family.

Many of the above issues still are very much real in today’s life and although they may not be categorised so blandly there is still well dressed prejudice between so many different types of social groups. The Chav culture of today is in many ways similar to the skin head culture of the 1980s as it consists of mainly youths from a working class background trying to find a sense of identity and belonging to people that ‘understand’ each other.