Where the Wild Things Are

I'm not a fan of the much loved children's book this is based on, I'm a fan of Spike Jonze and wanted to see what kind of world he creates with this and it is a beautiful one; forest next to ocean next to desert, wooden forts and a forever sunset light.

Max's parents are divorced and after getting into a fight with his mum he runs aways and ends up amongst the wild things who are essentially his personality split into different aspects. The wild things are looking for a king (parent) and Max takes on this role or tries to, it's hard being a parent.

A mixture of puppet and CG, the wild things are dirty, snotty, a bit ugly and a lot childish which helps Max in his transition to young adult. Max makes the important discovery that the world doesn't actually resolve around him.

The downers are the shitty soundtrack by Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the choice of voice actors for the wild things. I can never understand why directors choose actors with such well known voices for their none human characters. I can in a disney film where it somehow makes them more $ but this is art house and I don't want to see Tony Soprano coming out of a big puppet face.

YES - this is adults only.

Deadly Blessing

Little watched Wes Craven film about country couple Martha and John, whose neighbours are Hitite (not the amish but dressed like the amish and using horse carriages like the amish)

Some weird shit goes down in the barn and the Hitites are muttering about an Incubus. Marthas city friends (including a young saucy Sharon Stone) come and stay with her but this doesn't stop the stabbings, weird dreams and snake in the bath.

Is a person responsible or something else...

This is a strange one almost saved by a completely ridiculous out of nowhere ending that no one would see coming, its the type of ending that comes out of desperation, after all the and then, and thens you just go fuck it - It was all a dream.

NO - what the hell is going on? 

Whip It

Straight to DVD.

How come? It's not that bad and the 2 main characters of Bliss and Pash are the most realistic 17 year old best friends I've ever seen on screen.

Excellent Ellen Page is Bliss who discovers Roller Derby but has to keep it secret from her beauty pageant pushing mother.

I was really getting into the 90’s setting when Bliss' father looks up her team on the internet and I thought hold on a minute if this is 1995 then how come they have a computer and internet in their house? so I don’t actually know when this is set but I enjoyed it more thinking it was the 90s.

Directed by Drew Barrymore it reminds me of Karate Kid that type of training, fighting the villain and falling for someone along the way film. Oh and don't forget the special move which in this film is the "whip it"

NO - I’m sure that real life roller derby players will be horrified. I wouldn't say get it out however if you end up watching it on tv for some reason you'll watch it through to the end.

Black Rain

This terrible film is actually awesome!

Michael is Nick Conklin (Conklin?) an American cop who is escorting a gang member back to Osaka to be arrested but fucks up the hand over and the gang member escapes.

Michael is rude, inept, doesn't even try and speak Japanese or respect the police he's working with and is a massive dick. Along with his partner Andy Garcia, they attempt to hunt down the gang member with or without the help of the Japanese police.

Directed by Ridley Scott, it features all his favourite tricks - lights, smoke and fans. Weirdly he also recreates the smoking silhouette scene from Bladerunner exactly, this time with gaijin hostess Joyce. He also re uses some no doubt expensive wall tile blocks from Bladerunner for good measure (well he couldn't exactly use them in Legend could he?)

YES - motorbikes, smoking, swords, karaoke, lots of cheese but still stylish and enjoyable however I wonder what people from Osaka actually think of this.

Brazil

When I was 17 some friends asked me for movie recommendations, I said I don't know but DONT GET OUT BRAZIL. Somehow they heard this as get out Brazil it's the best movie I've ever seen and like me couldn't watch it all because it's long and boring and they ended up thinking I have terrible taste.

15 years later I thought I'd give it another go....

It is still too long but entertaining enough. A satire on our bureaucratic, youth obsessed society. Civil servant Sam Lowry attempts to correct a paperwork error that sees a Mr Buttle being arrested instead of  Mr Tuttle (an out of place Robert De Niro as a freelance terrorist air conditioner repairman) and ends up becoming an enemy of the state along the way.

Some great buildings and nice design ideas are let down by some shonky effects.

Great scene where Sam attends a funeral for the friend of his plastic surgery obsessed mother. The body has been so destroyed by surgery that the coffin is all that's holding it together and when Sam opens it the body flows out into a meaty puddle of guts (this is much funnier than it sounds)

NO - visually interesting but I'm still saying don't get it out.

Alice in Wonderland

This is my second film I have watched in 3D and the quality is no way near as good as avatar. I'm assuming this is because James used his own 3d camera that he INVENTED and this just converts normal film to 3d as an afterthought.

This is Return to Wonderland but unlike Dorothy, Alice is just not cool and no amount of outfit changes can keep you interested.

Highlights are the air swimming Cheshire cat and the red queens frog footmen. Lowlights unfortunately are Johnny Depp's madhatter and his stupid futterwacken dance at the end which interrupts the tone of the film with it's 90s dance music and is completely unnecessary.

The design is hit and miss. The frames overcrowded and Danny Elfman's soundtrack insipid.

NO - You are old, Tim Burton," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head--
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"

Antichrist

Chaos reigns.

A woman and man are having sex, meanwhile their young son falls from the window to his death. The woman can't get over her grief and the couple retreat to their cabin where he trys to help her (he's a psychiatrist) but she becomes more unstable.

Lars Von Trier wants to make this about men and woman naming his characters She & He. The couple are adam and eve returning to eden which is no longer a haven, nature is now completely separate from the world of humans and the tree of knowledge is bare and dead.

This film looks great - scenes of their sons death, images of a churning forest and especially haunting are the animals Willem encounters. Actually I'm more disturbed/surprised by those animals than anything Charlotte does and she does some full on shit like snip off her own clitoris.

I enjoyed this because it's confronting and unusual, definitely horrifying but thought provoking as well and that's why it's art not Hostel.

YES - maybe Lars is a scientologist

Shutter Island

Set in the 1950s, Leo is investigating a missing patient at a hospital for the criminally insane.

How does someone go missing on an island? Are the doctors being entirely truthful? What experiments are being performed in the lighthouse?

If you don't realise where this is heading by the time Leo finds the who is patient 67? note then you're a fucking moron, what would be impressive is if you could tell this was a Martin Scorsese film without seeing the credits, but it's not so much the story as the setting and visual style of this film that makes it so interesting. Smoky, stormy, shadowy and slow paced this is a refreshing film to watch amongst all the effects driven 3D hyper action family fare

Great to see always awesome Patricia Clarkson and Mark Ruffalo and Leo is as solid as always (he'll get an oscar one day but not for another 5 years I reckon)

YES - an accomplished adult psychological horror.

Up

The story of a man at the end of his life who has fallen behind the times, his wife is dead and he steadfastly refuses to sell his house which is now surrounded by a huge building site.

Instead of being forced into a retirement home he attaches thousands of helium balloons to his house and takes off to relocate to Paradise Falls, something he and his wife always talked about but never did.

In Paradise Falls he lands in the wrong place and has to "walk" his house over to the waterfall, dragging it like a giant balloon with the help of stowaway Russell, a talking dog and a giant bird. They run into a lost explorer who has been hunting the giant bird for years and will stop at nothing to capture it.

It's about obsession, letting go of the past, realising that your heros may be fallible and reconnecting with young people. This is why Pixar is such a successful studio not because of the high quality of the animation but because it's movies always contain the sad, difficult parts of life along with the goodtimes.

YES - it's true, this is Pixar's best film.

In the Realms of the Unreal

An old man who lives most of his life alone in Chicago spent his time writing and illustrating a 15000 page book. The book tells the story of the 7 Vivian girls who live in the land of Dargannian and are at war with the Glandelinians. Their homeworld is full of dark haired horned girls with giant creatures as their guardians. The 7 Vivian girls are brave, fearless and fight on horseback against the Glandelinian soldiers who are dressed in confederate uniform with leaderboard hats.

It's the type of story school children would write but this incorporates religion and a strong theme of violence against children, with the adults making children their slaves and not letting them have a "normal sleep of the night's season, the right to an education, that we may have an equality of opportunity for developing all that are in us of mind and heart."

Henry Darger just wanted to share his love. Never having a partner or wife he petitioned the church to adopt a child which was rightfully declined as he was extremely poor and had mental health issues. He once asked his landlords how much it cost them to keep their little dog but the 5 dollars a month was too much for him.

Lonely, naive and shy he never shared his work with anyone and it was only when he died that his landlords discovered the hundreds and hundreds of pages of writing and paintings in his room.

There are now many fans of his work and pieces are frequently exhibited and fetch up to $80,000 which is heartbreaking considering if only he had that money when he was alive he could of had his little dog.

YES - if only he had the internet when he was alive.