Matt Damon plays a US politician whom is currently experiencing a rapidly rising career. From the beginning of the film it is apparent that Damon is being watched by a shadowy group of individuals (The Adjustment Bureau) who seem to be able to manipulate events to direct the path of their lives.
Damon's career, however, has a bit of a setback after a newspaper posts a photo of him bearing his arse at a party. Not the kind of scandal you'd expect of a politician. No, here in the UK we're much more accustomed to our Members of Parliament being arrested for accidentally, while walking their dog in a public park at 3am, falling into a bush that just happened to be occupied by a rent boy with his trousers round his ankles. However, for Matt Damon's character this bare buttocked shenanigans result in him losing an election to the senate.
Just before he makes “I didn't win” speech to his supporters he nips into the hotel toilet whereupon he meets a young lady, Elise (played by Emily Blunt). After a brief conversation, that involves her telling him that she thinks politicians spend too much time talking out of their backsides, they kiss before Blunt is chased away by hotel security. Damon, being rather taken by the young lady, is inspired to abandon his prepared speech. He ends up making it up as he goes, talking about how much of everything he says and does as a politician is vetted and orchestrated beforehand. Including how the colour of his tie may affect voters. This honest approach results in him becoming more popular with your average Joe voter. Whom is his main target audience. Scum, from a right wing point of view.
Soon afterwards the member of the bureau who's job it is to keep an eye on Damon falls asleep and fails to prevent him missing a bus. Damon boards the bus and again crossing paths with the young lady that inspired him so much.
It quickly becomes apparent that bumping into Blunt a second time wasn't part of the plan that The Adjustment Bureau had for either of them, so they set about trying to keep them apart. Damon soon learns of the Bureau and their plans for him however he cannot stop thinking abut Blunt and sets about trying to cheat the destiny that has been planned for him.
A game of cat and mouse then ensues, where Damon tries to stay one step ahead of the bureau in his pursuit of “the one”.
The film is much more of a romance tale than I had anticipated (I'm not a big fan of romantic films) however it is still thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Damon runs through the streets trying to stay out of reach of the bureau in what are fast paced chase scenes. That's pretty much the last half of the film, but it's not endless unoriginal shots of people running down street after street. He's going through doors too! Oooh! Not just any doors. These doors lead to other places. I don't mean to a toilet or your living room. But a door in one street in the city, can lead directly to a building in another part of the city. Think extra dimensions.
I don't wish to give away too much of the story, so I won't say much more about it. If you like films like Inception (which this has been repeatedly compared to) then you will most likely enjoy it.
Certainly worth seeing.
Friday, 25 March 2011
Thursday, 7 October 2010
The Town
Ok, so I went to see "The Town" today. Or as they may say in the East End of Glasgow "Tha' Toon".
It's Ben Affleck's 4th outing as a Director (if you include 2 shorts). Having not seen a Film Starring Ben Affleck for some time (I believe the last one I watched was Changing Lanes) I was eager to see how good (or bad) his latest starring role was.
I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised.
I'm not saying that I think he's a crap actor. I genuinely like him as I'm a big Kevin Smith fan (admittedly Jersey Girl wasn't the best I've seen and fell far short of what he's capable of) and particularly like the "Jersey" films. But I digress. We're not here to talk about Kevin Smith films.
If you've seen the trailer then you know the basic plot. Four guys rob a bank and take the female manager hostage. The Leading character played by Affleck then falls for the manager and decides that he wants to go straight. Of course his childhood friend and partner in crime Jim, played by Jeremy Renner whom you may have seen as the lead in The Hurt Locker, doesn't like this. Nor does the local crime boss (Pete Postlethwaite with an Irish accent).
I don't like giving much of the story away but as is the case in many other film like this, Affleck's character is given no option but to either do one more job, or face his girlfriend being killed.
Nice guys he hangs about with eh?
If you like heist films as I do, then this will not disappoint. It's gritty, the bank robbery scenes are fast paced and are much more realistic than other bank heist that try to be almost James Bond-ish. I can say it is more realistic based on my zero experience of robbing banks with automatic weapons. The closest I've came to robbing a bank is getting a couple of bank charges refunded. It's usually them robbing me.
All in all it's a very good film. Ben Affleck has been previously accused of being, well, wooden in some of his previous performances. It certainly is not the case here. It's a far more serious role than most that he has done.
Go and see it!
I didn't spot Matt Damon in it. Don't they do everything together?
It's Ben Affleck's 4th outing as a Director (if you include 2 shorts). Having not seen a Film Starring Ben Affleck for some time (I believe the last one I watched was Changing Lanes) I was eager to see how good (or bad) his latest starring role was.
I must say, I was very pleasantly surprised.
I'm not saying that I think he's a crap actor. I genuinely like him as I'm a big Kevin Smith fan (admittedly Jersey Girl wasn't the best I've seen and fell far short of what he's capable of) and particularly like the "Jersey" films. But I digress. We're not here to talk about Kevin Smith films.
If you've seen the trailer then you know the basic plot. Four guys rob a bank and take the female manager hostage. The Leading character played by Affleck then falls for the manager and decides that he wants to go straight. Of course his childhood friend and partner in crime Jim, played by Jeremy Renner whom you may have seen as the lead in The Hurt Locker, doesn't like this. Nor does the local crime boss (Pete Postlethwaite with an Irish accent).
I don't like giving much of the story away but as is the case in many other film like this, Affleck's character is given no option but to either do one more job, or face his girlfriend being killed.
Nice guys he hangs about with eh?
If you like heist films as I do, then this will not disappoint. It's gritty, the bank robbery scenes are fast paced and are much more realistic than other bank heist that try to be almost James Bond-ish. I can say it is more realistic based on my zero experience of robbing banks with automatic weapons. The closest I've came to robbing a bank is getting a couple of bank charges refunded. It's usually them robbing me.
All in all it's a very good film. Ben Affleck has been previously accused of being, well, wooden in some of his previous performances. It certainly is not the case here. It's a far more serious role than most that he has done.
Go and see it!
I didn't spot Matt Damon in it. Don't they do everything together?
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Splice
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!
Ok, so first review. And what a film to review.
It touts itself as a Sci-Fi /horror.
There is plenty of science fiction. GM organisms, gene splicing (hence the title) etc. There's just no horror. It's just not scary.
The general story goes like this: Male/Female scientist couple (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) are working on splicing different animal's genes into the one organism. They want to try out human/animal genetic hybrids but their employers/funders refuse to allow this. They then decide to try it anyway. But only at the fertilisation stage. Just to see if it's possible.
As you'd expect in a film of this type it's necessary plot wise to have them let the organism go to full term. Well, you wouldn't have much of a film otherwise would you? Can't have 15 minutes of story then another 70 minutes of under the microscope footage before the glass slide that the embryo is on is picked up from under the microscope and tossed into a yellow biohazard bin, only to be followed by the two leading main characters talking for 5 minutes about what might have been.
To be honest though, the version I have just made up would have been far better than the cinema release.
The GM organism is allowed to go full term. It forms into what looks like an old wineskin with a tail, before shedding it's wineskin skin and revealing itself to be what looks like a bald rabbit with short stumpy front legs. A bit like a tiny pink T-Rex really. Only cuter.
Instead of doing what they should have done and take a shotgun to the thing, they decide (the female decides and the man has no spine and just goes along with her) to let it develop and grow. After a short period of time it has developed into a half rabbit/half ugly female child with a head like that of a penis. I'm not kidding, it really does look like that.
As the film drolls on, the mutant-like creature gets named Dren (Nerd backwards) and goes through puberty. It gets a bit aggressive, grows wings, Adrien Brody's character has sex with it (well, you would, wouldn't you?), it then turns into a bloke, attacks and kills a couple of people before raping the woman and getting killed itself.
It is a seriously bad film. I can't put across how terrible it actually is. You really have to see it for yourself to appreciate it. Though please don't take that as a
recommendation. It's not one of those "so bad it's good" films. It's so bad it's 90 minutes of your life you aren't getting back.
They've given Adrien Brody a geeky emo haircut just to make sure you realise that he's meant to be a scientist. If that weren't patronising enough, it appears that they put the sex scene in to make this film bearable. It worked for Species eh? It just doesn't work with this. To make this film remotely tolerable to anyone by adding sex, they would have to turn it into a hardcore porno for weirdos that like to watch cartoons where Japanese schoolgirls have sex with monsters (Well, you would, wouldn't you?).
If films as bad as this is where GM crops and the Monsanto corporation are going to get us, I for one, want them banned.
Ok, so first review. And what a film to review.
It touts itself as a Sci-Fi /horror.
There is plenty of science fiction. GM organisms, gene splicing (hence the title) etc. There's just no horror. It's just not scary.
The general story goes like this: Male/Female scientist couple (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) are working on splicing different animal's genes into the one organism. They want to try out human/animal genetic hybrids but their employers/funders refuse to allow this. They then decide to try it anyway. But only at the fertilisation stage. Just to see if it's possible.
As you'd expect in a film of this type it's necessary plot wise to have them let the organism go to full term. Well, you wouldn't have much of a film otherwise would you? Can't have 15 minutes of story then another 70 minutes of under the microscope footage before the glass slide that the embryo is on is picked up from under the microscope and tossed into a yellow biohazard bin, only to be followed by the two leading main characters talking for 5 minutes about what might have been.
To be honest though, the version I have just made up would have been far better than the cinema release.
The GM organism is allowed to go full term. It forms into what looks like an old wineskin with a tail, before shedding it's wineskin skin and revealing itself to be what looks like a bald rabbit with short stumpy front legs. A bit like a tiny pink T-Rex really. Only cuter.
Instead of doing what they should have done and take a shotgun to the thing, they decide (the female decides and the man has no spine and just goes along with her) to let it develop and grow. After a short period of time it has developed into a half rabbit/half ugly female child with a head like that of a penis. I'm not kidding, it really does look like that.
As the film drolls on, the mutant-like creature gets named Dren (Nerd backwards) and goes through puberty. It gets a bit aggressive, grows wings, Adrien Brody's character has sex with it (well, you would, wouldn't you?), it then turns into a bloke, attacks and kills a couple of people before raping the woman and getting killed itself.
It is a seriously bad film. I can't put across how terrible it actually is. You really have to see it for yourself to appreciate it. Though please don't take that as a
recommendation. It's not one of those "so bad it's good" films. It's so bad it's 90 minutes of your life you aren't getting back.
They've given Adrien Brody a geeky emo haircut just to make sure you realise that he's meant to be a scientist. If that weren't patronising enough, it appears that they put the sex scene in to make this film bearable. It worked for Species eh? It just doesn't work with this. To make this film remotely tolerable to anyone by adding sex, they would have to turn it into a hardcore porno for weirdos that like to watch cartoons where Japanese schoolgirls have sex with monsters (Well, you would, wouldn't you?).
If films as bad as this is where GM crops and the Monsanto corporation are going to get us, I for one, want them banned.
Saturday, 7 August 2010
A Long Time Coming
I decided a few (6 I think) years ago to start a website dedicated to video game and movie reviews. I have done nothing since registering the URL (http://www.game-angel.com), renting the webspace and designing a logo and "this site is under construction" front page.
It's high time I actually got my larger than necessary backside into action and did something. As I'm a fairly lazy person I've decided to go down the route of a blog instead of having to deal with the intricacies of trying to publish it to a website. I know it's not that complicated, but I'm lazy and this is easier.
It's high time I actually got my larger than necessary backside into action and did something. As I'm a fairly lazy person I've decided to go down the route of a blog instead of having to deal with the intricacies of trying to publish it to a website. I know it's not that complicated, but I'm lazy and this is easier.
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