Movie roundup...
I took a couple of transatlantic flights a couple of weeks back. Which, amongst other things, allowed me the chance to catch up on a few films I'd missed at the cinema.
The selection on offer was pretty good, but I passed on the chance to watch 'Frost/Nixon' or 'Slumdog Millionaire' - I'll watch them on DVD sometime anyway. Instead I watched 'Quantum of Solace', 'Yes Man' and 'The day the earth stood still' on the outbound flight, and I watched 'Milk' on the return flight; which I've already blogged about. I also saw 'Star Trek' while I was there, but that's worthy of its own blog posting, when I get the chance...
I heard several reviews of this along the lines of 'you must re-watch Casino Royale before watching this, or you won't have a clue what's going on', yet I watched this without having seen CR since it was in the cinemas and managed to follow the plot (such as there is) pretty well.
Its entertaining nonsense. But we've known that about Bond for decades. So we have the usual mix of over the top action sequences, espionage and exotic locations. If anything, this owes even more of a debt of gratitute to the Bourne movies than Casino Royale ever did, but its heart is still Bond. Certainly not the greatest Bond film, certainly not the worst.
But the building control officer who approved the plans for that hotel in the desert should be shot! Have these people never heard of risk analysis? ;o)
I haven't (yet) read the book, so came at this with few preconceptions, except the obvious 'oh no, its Jim Carrey girning again' one. I found it quite entertaining and Zooey Deschanel (and Terence Stamp) elevate it to a better film than it probably beserves to be. Light-hearted fluff, but a fun hour and a half. Sufficient laugh out loud moments to make it a good comedy and, of course, Zooey is as captivating and sweet as ever. And Jim Carrey isn't too annoying. But this is Zooey's movie. The cameo by Danny Wallace looks totally staged though.
Keanu Reeves is a relitively emotion-free alien. I can buy that. There's nothing earth-shattering here, but the film is entertainingly diverting for an hour and a half. They could have done more with it, but it could have been so much worse. You do actually care what happens to Jennifer Connelly's character, even if her step-son is an unnecessarily contrived plot device. Don't pay to see it, but watch it if its on...
The selection on offer was pretty good, but I passed on the chance to watch 'Frost/Nixon' or 'Slumdog Millionaire' - I'll watch them on DVD sometime anyway. Instead I watched 'Quantum of Solace', 'Yes Man' and 'The day the earth stood still' on the outbound flight, and I watched 'Milk' on the return flight; which I've already blogged about. I also saw 'Star Trek' while I was there, but that's worthy of its own blog posting, when I get the chance...
Quantum of Solace
I heard several reviews of this along the lines of 'you must re-watch Casino Royale before watching this, or you won't have a clue what's going on', yet I watched this without having seen CR since it was in the cinemas and managed to follow the plot (such as there is) pretty well.
Its entertaining nonsense. But we've known that about Bond for decades. So we have the usual mix of over the top action sequences, espionage and exotic locations. If anything, this owes even more of a debt of gratitute to the Bourne movies than Casino Royale ever did, but its heart is still Bond. Certainly not the greatest Bond film, certainly not the worst.
But the building control officer who approved the plans for that hotel in the desert should be shot! Have these people never heard of risk analysis? ;o)
Yes Man
I haven't (yet) read the book, so came at this with few preconceptions, except the obvious 'oh no, its Jim Carrey girning again' one. I found it quite entertaining and Zooey Deschanel (and Terence Stamp) elevate it to a better film than it probably beserves to be. Light-hearted fluff, but a fun hour and a half. Sufficient laugh out loud moments to make it a good comedy and, of course, Zooey is as captivating and sweet as ever. And Jim Carrey isn't too annoying. But this is Zooey's movie. The cameo by Danny Wallace looks totally staged though.
The day the earth stood still
Keanu Reeves is a relitively emotion-free alien. I can buy that. There's nothing earth-shattering here, but the film is entertainingly diverting for an hour and a half. They could have done more with it, but it could have been so much worse. You do actually care what happens to Jennifer Connelly's character, even if her step-son is an unnecessarily contrived plot device. Don't pay to see it, but watch it if its on...
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