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Django Unchained 2012
Thoroughly enjoyable, though tonally uneven, over-long, and in need of someone to reign in QT's indulgences.
It's sensibilities are a mixture of blaxploitation films, crossed with Peckinpah Westerns (and turned up to 11). For the most part it's beautifully shot, but Tarantino's repetitive use of the kitschy snap-zoom completely brought me out of the film.
Foxx and Waltz are an entertaining pair, and both do fine jobs, however it's DiCaprio that stands out. His loses himself in his first proper…
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The Divide 2011
This is a nasty, nihilistic little film with few redeeming qualities. The setup at face value sounds really interesting, a mystery apocalyptic event, and a group of survivors stuck in a basement together.
This sounds like a recipe for a slow burn where the characters slowly turn on each other as things get more desperate, and their true nature begins to show.
Sadly that's not the case here. These caricatures are complete and utter assholes from the word go. They…
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The Man from Earth 2007
This is a difficult film to write about. The first thing to say is that it's best knowing as little about it as possible. It's incredibly low budget, the cinematography and technical film-making in general is pretty terrible (it's directed by the man who brought us this year's 'Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies'), the acting is ridiculous in many places, but the script was fascinating enough to keep me completely fixated the entire time.
At it's core, it's just one long…
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Room in Rome 2010
Another one that I found through the 'films set in one location' Quora thread, this could easily be dismissed as soft-core porn due to the fact that the 2 main characters are naked for about 90% of the movie.
If you can get over that though, the really interesting thing about this is not the sex, but how lies are used to paint the portraits of these two women. Spanish actress Elena Anaya (The Skin I Live In/Talk to her)…
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Exam 2009
This little ultra-low-budget thriller is in a similar vein to one-room movies such as Cube, or Twelve Angry Men, and though in my opinion isn't as well written as either of those, it held my interest and I enjoyed the ride.
There's some spotty acting by certain characters, but I thought the actors playing White and Black did pretty solid jobs throughout.
Where Cube frustrated with it's ambiguous conclusion, this at least answers the questions it raises.
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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey 2012
This is probably the least fun I've had in a cinema in quite some time.
I saw this in 3D HFR, and the experience was strange and inconsistent, to the point where I found it hard to concentrate on the movie itself. I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt (as I try to do with any sufficiently cool new technology) and see if I settled into it as the movie went on, but that didn't happen. I…
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Jack Reacher 2012
This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.
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The Descent 2005
Seen this before, but a flatmate wanted to so we re-watched last night. Just as muddled as I remember, with far too many unbelievable climbing/caving scenes, but not in a hilarious 'vertical limit' kind of way.
Some great prosthetic effects/gore considering it's low budget towards the end, but kind of implodes on itself in the last 20 mins or so.
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Snow White and the Huntsman 2012
The controversy surrounding Rupert Sanders' debut unfortunately takes away from the amazing visual feast that the film is. Sanders clearly has an amazing imagination, and great eye for visuals, and I hope he's able to put it to good use on a better script at some point in the future.
The casting of the dwarves caught me completely by surprise, but having that caliber of acting talent really helped bring down the cheese factor that's inherent in having seven dwarves…
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The Expendables 2 2012
Feels like they're trying to pack a lot in (they are) and with so many characters, and so much action, it can jump from place to place pretty quickly. Considering that though, they manage to pack a surprising number of conversations into the second act.
Far superior to the first film, though they could have thrown away about 75% of the winks to many of the actors previous roles. Arnie's the worst in this regard. Norris gets to keep his…
