The Deer Hunter (1978) Review

When sitting down to watch this for the first time, I was thinking it would be one of those films that just haven’t aged that well, and I really didn’t see how there would be a depiction of war that I hadn’t seen before, but there was. Starting off with an hour or so with a group of friends in small town industrial-America, we follow their last days before three of them ship into Vietnam. This really took me by surprise as I thought I was watching a war-film, but there was barely any war-scenes in the film. In a film that is three hours long, it spent less then one of these in Vietnam. At first I was getting a little restless with the slow pace of the film as it felt like literally nothing was happening, but I started noticing there was something slightly off with the dynamic of the friendship and I started noticing how this cloud was hanging over all of them, the fact that soon three of them were going to Vietnam. Despite being tough guys, there was something emotional for all of them, but they were trying to hide. The fact that they all seemed so frightened really helped us to get to know the characters and their relationship better, something that is vital for the film.

Another thing that is truly vital for the film is the acting, and it is phenomenal. De Niro does what he does best, doing a perfect performance of the leader of the group, who is really strong, but really starts to show a more emotional side as the film progresses, but always staying strong. The best performance here is however from Christopher Walken. In the pre-Vietnam scenes he had a really strong screen prescence, however once we got to Vietnam his performance turned into something extraordinary. There is one scene in particular where he just takes complete control over the viewer’s emotions and just crushes them. His scenes get more and more challenging to act and watch, and he executes it all phenomenally.

Giving us the before and after with the characters we get such amazing character development, which was great because I haven’t really seen all of that done this way in a film before. For some reason I did get kind of a Godfather vibe from the film, which is definitely a good thing.

It must be said that the film is very hard to watch. There are several scenes where characters play Russian roulette and they are incredibly uncomfortable to watch. It is a film that left my emotions shattered and not something to watch when you are feeling down. That being said it is brilliant and thought-provoking, with a final scene which did feel kind of out of place, but one that is more fitting the more I think about it. One of the best war films ever made, even though there is only about 20-30 minutes of war in it.

5/5

The Intouchables (2012) Review

When a film has got 57 on Metacritic and 8.6 on Imdb, you know there is some serious disagreement between critics and audiences. However that this film has received such a mediocre rating from critics is beyond me. This French comedy-drama is one of the best films of the year.

Now the true story the film tells might not be the most original story, which seems to be all that matters for a lot of critics, but it is nearly flawless in its execution. A film doesn’t always need to have an original plot; it can even have a slightly overused plot, but the execution is what really matters.

The two lead performances in the film are terrific. Omar Sy as Driss, manages to be one of the most charming characters ever on screen, yet he makes it believable that he still is a criminal of sorts, something that is vital to understand. The movie would no at all work if Driss weren’t as charming as he is, but we still have to believe that despite his charm he is a troubled person, and Sy balances it perfectly. The role of Driss is very easily overacted, but he never went over the top and he always stayed true to his character, even though the development he was given did leap a bit too much at a point. Cluzet, who plays Philippe, a wealthy quadriplegic, plays the role beautifully. Not only is he charming like Driss, but his role is a massive psychical challenge and I felt like he did it perfectly. I always like it when actors don’t go all out in emotional scenes, because usually it just feels like it is too much, but the emotional scenes were handled really well by Cluzet.

The film has one of the best uses of in medias res I have seen in a film in quite some time. The scene we are shown at the beginning seems odd and just like something to set up the characters, but when we see it again near the end it becomes one of the most emotionally charged scenes in the movie and it was so incredibly powerful, even though there were no tears or anything, but what happened with the characters in this scene just had such a huge emotional impact and was done so incredibly well. Even though I am praising the emotional scenes, it has to be said that this is also one of the funniest films of the year; it is absolutely hilarious. What was more impressive is how well the drama and comedy blended, when I think dramatic comedies, there is always that moment where it goes from being a comedy to a drama and the tone changes and the pace slows down, often leaving the viewer a bit bored for five minutes or so before adjusting, however this film never hit that speed bump, even when it got dramatic. I was impressed with how consistent the tone managed to stay, which is really a great job by the directors.

The film is a true feel-good film, filled with laughs and emotion, fuelled by brilliant performances. Despite some minor complaints about some character development feeling a tad bit too much, there is little too complain about with this hilarious French crowd-pleaser.

4.5/5  

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) Review

Yet again Peter Jackson takes us to Middle-Earth, but this time in 48 frames per-second… oh dear. People seem to be very split on the 48fps, but it truly is horrendous in my opinion. Now before you say I should focus on the story telling etc. lets not forget that Peter Jackson wants us to see the films this way and if it doesn’t work then that is a huge reason for criticism. Going into the film I was thinking there was no way it was as bad as some critics are saying, but dear lord was the frame rate distracting. Though it got a bit easier to overlook eventually, I never managed to get lost in the story, I never got out of the movie theatre and could not get past how weird it looked when people were walking or the camera was panning. I can imagine that maybe one day, 48fps will be the standard, but at the moment it looks dreadful and my brain really had trouble processing everything when the cutting was fast during the action scenes. In the end it all just felt messy and unnecessary.

But, how was the movie outside the 48fps? Well… disappointing. Now just to make it clear, I know this is not supposed to be like the original trilogy, not as gritty or epic, but rather small in scale and whimsical. People say this is a children´s book, and in the film it shows a lot of the time, but then all of a sudden they are decapitating heads all over the place and the film is obviously too violent and scary for a child, yet it still feels like a children´s film a lot of the time. The film was very cartoony, and I get that they were going for that, but just because they were going for that doesn’t mean it works, because it doesn’t. Everything just comes off as silly and cheesy; something that cartoony doesn’t have to be. This also brought a huge inconsistency in the tone as it went from very cartoony, to all of a sudden some sweeping shots accompanied with some great epic music from Howard Shore, which didn’t feel cartoony at all.

The decision to make the orcs and goblins CGI (rather then actors in make-up as before), I guess could be a decision to make it cartoonier, but they looked ridiculous. While the ones in LOTR looked real and convincing, the ones in this film were awfully designed and though the CGI was astonishing, they never looked as real as in LOTR. I get they wanted it less gritty, but did they really have to make it into cheesy looking CGI figures?

The acting is great from all, especially Martin Freeman who is a good source of laughs and was perfectly cast. That being said I never connected that much with the characters, despite great acting all around. The character I ended up having the most sympathy with was Gollum, whose scene was also the best in the movie by a mile. Though outside this scene, there were few scenes that had my attention. For a majority of the film I felt like there was nothing going on, too many scenes felt like they were all about setting up a silly joke, without having a lot of relevance in plot or characters. The scene with the rock giants we saw in the trailer was visually amazing, but it felt so out of place and I just kept thinking, when is the plot going to get going?

In the end it seems two of the most controversial decisions, 48fps and making three films, also ruined it. While there were good moments, there was too much nothing going on and too much silliness while the plot never quite got going. It is visually stunning, accompanied by a great score, yet it just felt boring to me. I do believe seeing it in 24fps could make me enjoy it more, but I saw it in 48fps and so this is what I am reviewing, and I just didn’t enjoy it.

2/5

Golden Globe Nominations

The nominations for the 2013 Golden Globes have been announced! As expected Spielberg´s Lincoln has the most nominations with 7, while Argo got 5. For the most the nominations are as expected, though I am a bit surprised at Django Unchained getting 5 nominations, making it one of the frontrunners, though I don’t expect to have a shot of winning, then again I haven’t seen it yet. Also noteworthy, The Master did not receive anything but acting awards, despite being considered somewhat of a frontrunner.  Other then a surprising number of nominations for Tarantino´s latest, there aren’t a lot of surprises in either the film or TV categories. Comment your thoughts below as we wait in excitement for the winners to be announced on January 13^th 2013.  

Best Motion Picture — Drama
Argo
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Richard Gere, Arbitrage
John Hawkes, The Sessions
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama
Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone
Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
Naomi Watts, The Impossible
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

Best Motion Picture — Comedy Or Musical
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Les Miserables
Moonrise Kingdom
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Silver Linings Playbook

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Comedy Or Musical
Emily Blunt, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Judi Dench, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Maggie Smith, Quartet
Meryl Streep, Hope Springs

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Comedy Or Musical
Jack Black, Bernie
Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Bill Murray, Hyde Park on Hudson
Ewan McGregor, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Alan Arkin, Argo
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Director — Motion Picture
Ben Affleck, Argo
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln
Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture
Argo, Chris Terrio
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Lincoln, Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal

Best Original Score — Motion Picture
Anna Karenina, Dario Marianelli
Argo, Alexandre Desplat
Cloud Atlas, Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimet & Reinhold Heil
Life of Pi, Michael Danna
Lincoln, John Williams

Best Original Song — Motion Picture
“For You ” (music and lyrics by Keith Urban), Act of Valor
“Not Running Anymore” (music and lyrics by Jon Bon Jovi), Stand Up Guys
“Safe & Sound” (music and lyrics by Taylor Swift, John Paul White, Joy Williams and T Bone Burnett), The Hunger Games
“Skyfall” (music and lyrics by Adel and Paul Epworth), Skyfall
“Suddenly” (music by Claude-Michel Schonberg and lyrics by Schonberg and Alain Boublil),Les Miserables

Best Animated Film
Brave
Frankenweenie
Hotel Transylvania
Rise of the Guardians
Wreck-It Ralph

Best Foreign Language Film
Amour
The Intouchables
Kon-Tiki
A Royal Affair
Rust & Bone

Best Television Series — Drama
Boardwalk Empire
Breaking Bad
Downton Abbey
Homeland
The Newsroom

Best Television Series — Comedy Or Musical
The Big Bang Theory
Episodes
Girls
Modern Family
Smash

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series – Drama
Steve Buscemi, Boardwalk Empire
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Jeff Daniels, The Newsroom
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Damian Lewis, Homeland

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series – Drama
Connie Britton, Nashville
Glenn Close, Damages
Claire Danes, Homeland
Michelle Dockery, Downton Abbey
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Kevin Costner, Hatfields and McCoys
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
Woody Harrelson, Game Change
Toby Jones, The Girl
Clive Owen, Hemingway and Gellhorn

Best Performance by an Actress In A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Nicole Kidman, Hemingway and Gellhorn
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Asylum
Sienna Miller, The Girl
Julianne Moore, Game Change
Sigourney Weaver, Political Animals

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Max Greenfield, New Girl
Ed Harris, Game Change
Danny Huston, Magic City
Mandy Patinkin, Homeland
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Hayden Panettiere, Nashville
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife
Sarah Paulson, Game Change
Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey 
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family

Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series — Comedy Or Musical
Zooey Deschanel, New Girl
Lena Dunham, Girls
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep
Amy Poehler, Parks And Recreation

Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series — Comedy Or Musical
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Don Cheadle, House of Lies
Louis C.K., Louis
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television
Game Change
The Girl
Hatfield & McCoys
The Hour
Political Animals

Cecil B. DeMille Award
Jodie Foster