Category: 2010

Legion (2010)

Rating 15
Length 1h 44
Release 5.3.2010
Director Scott Stewart
About A group of strangers in a diner suddenly find themselves surrounded by demons. Their only hope lies in Michael, an archangel, who wishes to protect the unborn child of the restaurant’s waitress.

The Good

  • It was a well cast film. Paull Bettany is as awesome as he always is, Adrianne Palicki is charming and Lucas Black has that “Where do I know your face?” quality. Answer: He’s the kid right at the beginning of X Files: Fight the Future (1998).
  • The premise, while derivative, is a good one. Terminator, Children of Men and even Harry Potter has the plot of saving an unborn child to secure a better future. They also have the bad guys there to try and stop that with all the blood and mayhem.
  • Doug Jones. Who doesn’t love a bit of what Doug Jones can offer?! His cameo is short, but by no means sweet. You’ll be thinking about it for days. The beauty of it, for me at least, is that you actually get to see Doug Jones’ face. Before, of course, he does what he does best and creeps the fuck out of me.

The Bad

  • The action sequences were so much like game play that it left me feeling a little sick in the end. At one point all the actors looked like CGI renderings of themselves.
  • The plot, or lack thereof, is pinned around set pieces rather than the characters. Its a shame, because what they show of the people, it could have been a much better movie had it refocused the narrative on them and went the way of The Prophecy (1995). I mean, anyone who has seen the Walken as Angel Gabriel will be comparing the two any way.
  • It takes itself way too seriously for a film that doesn’t endear you to any of the characters and promotes the grotesque. This film would have worked better with a nod and wink to the audience.

The Ugly

  • The gore is too much for me. It wasn’t that it seemed overly real, but the exact opposite. It had this strange ability to knock believability right out the park and also make me turn away.
  • The film was way too dark in places. I’m sure it worked really well in the cinema, but I lost so much of the action because I can’t get the room I was watching it in pitch black.

Final Thoughts

If you want a film about a loner trying to save a pregnant lady, watch Children of Men. If you want a film about angels not being such the ‘Angels’ we expect them to be, watch Dogma. You want a movie about a waring heaven and angels on Earth, watch The Prophecy. Want Paul Bettany at his best, watch Gangster No 1.
Point is, there’s nothing this film can offer you that a better film out there can.

The Winning Season (2010)

Rating: 12
Length: 1hr 44
Release: 3.9.2010 (No UK cinema release)
Dir: Jim Strouse
About: Bill Greaves, an alcoholic, gets a chance to bring his life back on track when a friend, Terry, offers him a job to coach a high school girls’ basketball team.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=K_rwcbZA0ds

The Good

  • This is a funny film that doesn’t sugar coat anything while remaining a charming film about self improvement, family and team building. There’s nothing necessarily new here; it’s Mighty Ducks only it centres on female basketball. However, let me put it this way; it’s Mighty Ducks but the team is female, empowered and fronted by Emma Roberts and Mara Rooney.
  • The character of Bill is what makes this film for me. He’s essentially Sam from Glow; he’s an asshole, a self-confessed one at that, with a strong moral code under his frosty exterior. His relationships form the foundation of the film and its development. It’s through him that you become invested. You want an example of healthy masculinity, this asshole is the the one to do it.
  • It made a nice change to see Rob Corddry play something other than a larger than life douchebag. Really refreshing and he wears the proud principal well.
  • The film touches on everything that feels relevant to today; questioning the self, racism on and off the court (and It’s quite well handled), gender equality and teen pregnancy and the consequences of it.
  • Margo Martindale is always a wonderful addition to anything she’s in. She’s one of those people who you recognise, even if you can’t quite place her. She’s the sweetness to Rockwell’s harsh character.

Bad

  • There’s one part of Bill’s journey I wish we’d gotten was a proper resolution. It was hinted at that life didn’t go to plan for him because of the birth of his daughter. I would like to have seen perhaps suggestions of what would happen to his character once the credits started. I get the impression it was considered and filmed, but left on the cutting room floor.

Ugly

  • The final act does run the risk of verging into uncomfortable territory. Having a grown man in Lycra, running around a school full of teen girls with police trying to arrest him doesn’t sound so great on paper and it is only because of the development of the character that sort of makes it okay. (Actually, I laughed my ass off at the absurdity of it, but I know if it was another actor it would have creeped me the fuck out)

Final Thoughts

Its such a charming film from start to finish and the biggest shame of it all is that I’d not heard about it sooner.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Rating: 18

Length: 1Hr 35

Release: 7.5.2010

About: Teenagers Nancy, Quentin, Kris, Jesse and Dean are all neighborhood friends who begin having the same dream of a horribly disfigured man who wears a tattered sweater and a glove made of knives. The man, Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley), terrorizes them in their dreams, and the only escape is to wake up. But when one of their number dies violently, the friends realize that what happens in the dream world is real, and the only way to stay alive is to stay awake.

The Good

The 2010 offering takes what is an interesting concept, offers a polished script and gives a better explanation to the fate of Freddy and his supernatural motivations.

It’s most definitely a horror. There’s jumps and scares (even those beyond my cat jumping onto me as someone gets the Freddy knives to the chest). The music has some part to play in that, but the biggest sell for the fear factor is how possible some of it seems. Not the whole ‘slasher killing you in your dreams’, but the repression after trauma, sexual predators being brought to vigilante justice by an angry mob.

Krueger is visually better. He looks like a burn victim rather than a jazz hand muppet or Christopher Llyod in Who Framed Rogger Rabbit? While Englund is iconic, time has been unkind to his camp Freddy. Now we have a Krueger that you believe may have been wrongly punished. Not only do his motivations bring fear, every movement is slow, calculated and necessary. It’s the opposite of what the 80s provided and, even ten years on, it scares the crap out of me.

The Bad

Some CGI scenes are bad. I actually reported a ‘trivia’ note on IMDb that stated that GCI was only used when ‘absolutely necessary’ as I believe that to be utter bullshit. The two scenes in which Freddy enters the ‘real world’ through the bedroom walls did not need to be done through CGI. It looks flawless (and creepy) in the 1984 version while the CGI one detracts from the horror.

The Ugly

The final scene that suggests it’s not really all over. It’s not the only film guilty of it, but I am disappointed that in 2010 it’s the only way Hollywood can end a horror movie.

Final thoughts

It’s the best horror remake/reboot I know of and it certainly has the scares you want from a horror. I just wish it would have relied on practical effects over CGI.

Marvelous Movie Reviews: Iron Man 2 (2010)

“The suit and I are one.”
Tony Stark

Release: 30 April 2010
Rating: 12
Length: 2Hr 4min
About: With the world now aware that he is Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from all sides to share his technology with the military. He is reluctant to divulge the secrets of his armored suit, fearing the information will fall into the wrong hands. With Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) by his side, Tony must forge new alliances and confront a powerful new enemy.

The Good

  • The biggest highlight for me is the casting; both Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell are amazing as this installment’s bag guys. I’ll admit, I still struggled to hear everything Rourke was saying but I didn’t mind once the subtitles were on.
  • Tony is even more Howard Hughes than ever and I love the entrance to the Expo. Its a brilliant way of showing his approach to his superhero life.
  • The humour in the court hearing is rather pitch perfect. It’s on the right side of tongue in cheek; from the comment that nods to the casting change of Rhodey to the responses given to Senator Trump Stern.
  • I don’t think I picked up on this in the first outing, but I love the Red Dwarf-like robots Tony has in his basement.
  • We get more Happy and Black Widow’s introduction is rather subtle for newbies, allowing them to be on side with Stark, while remaining perfect for fans in the know.
  • The CGI of the wrecked car at the Monaco Grand Prix is still as breath taking as it was on the big screen. It’s hard not to wonder what went wrong with the graphics department down the line.
  • As Tony becomes reckless, it allows Rhodey to have more to do. There’s a few scenes between Rob DJ and Don Cheadle that are rather beautiful, sincere and something I feel is missing from some of the later movies.
  • Have to give a shout out to Queen for the vocals to the fight sequence between a drunk Tony and Rhodey. THIS was a better Civil War than, well, Civil War.
  • “I don’t want to join your super secret boy band.” – I love the relationship between Stark and Fury. It’s like an angry uncle and a rebellious nephew. It’s something the film could have done with more of.
  • Okay, I briefly mentioned Sam Rockwell at the beginning but of all the anti-heroes, Justin Hammer is quite possibly my favourite. Perhaps its because his motivation is pure stupidity and a drive for power that he should never have. He’s the guy you meet wherever you work, shop or play. He’s the guy who thinks he means well, has charm but he wouldn’t think twice about throwing his nanna under the bus. He’s a big dick; a brilliant, snivelling, brown nosing dick. And who better to handle this character than Sam Rockwell?!

The Bad

  • What is with Mickey Rourke’s Corey Feldman skunk stripe?! Don’t get me wrong, Rourke has my admiration for The Wrestler and I’m sure it’s more to do with the costume department, but I want to chop it off.
  • The opening exposition wasn’t as clear as with Hulk and, as a result, I missed Ivan’s beef against Stark. It was over an hour in before I made sense of his one-man war path.
  • Paltrow’s Pepper Potts is a little too loud and shouty in this outing. Her freaking out in the car really doesn’t fit with what was otherwise a flawless scene.
  • Coulson was a bit pointless in this. It felt too forced “Hi, I’m coming to tell you I can’t stay.”…. okay. I get the feeling it was to prepare the way for the sting, but he wasn’t required in the film proper for that to happen. That said, I do love Gregg Clark so I shouldn’t really complain.
  • Happy and Black Widow! We so need more of those two together. It was the best part of the god damn movie.

The Ugly

  • I feel as if there’s a bit of a continuity error when it comes to Stark’s involvement in the Avengers Initiative. He was very much involved within the sting of Hulk, but this film seems to ignore that.
  • Its still the same ending; bigger, meaner version of the hero. Only this time they pressed the copy button. It’s already feeling stagnant when it comes to the bad guys.
  • This could be where the problems with Black Widow start. Both Happy and Tony fawn over her; even Potts mentions how it was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Final Thoughts

My opinion has improved some what since the first, and last, time I watched this. To be fair, I was so bored that I left my boyfriend-at-the-time in the screen and went for a walk. Twice. What I will say though is that I wasn’t the hard core Marvel CINEMATIC Universe fan until Joss Whedon gave me Assemble.
It still has its faults, but I must say I actually enjoyed it much more… even if I did have to watch it in two sections.

Next up, as the sting revealed, is Thor.

Love Han x

Christmas Film Advent- Rare Exports A Christmas Story (2010)

Watch your mouth! It’s Christmastime, so let’s act like it

Length: 1 hr 25

Rating: 15

About: A young boy named Pietari (Onni Tommila) and his friend Juuso (Ilmari Järvenpää) think a secret mountain drilling project near their home in northern Finland has uncovered the tomb of Santa Claus. However, this a monstrous, evil Santa, much unlike the cheery St. Nick of legend. When Pietari’s father (Jorma Tommila) captures a feral old man (Peeter Jakobi) in his wolf trap, the man may hold the key to why reindeer are being slaughtered and children are disappearing.

First Thoughts

Rare Exports first came on my radar when it appeared on YouTube as a self contained short. It was something rather different. The training of feral Santa’s was unsettling in a weirdly good way. It perhaps was one of my first explorations into Christmas horror and the film itself became a Christmas Eve watch for me and my brother once our dad had gone to bed. Which year is was, I’ll leave to my brother to inform me.

I don’t remember the inclusion of what I would come to call Krampus (Joulupukki in Rare Exports) in the short and I’m definitely certain this was my introduction to the anti Santa.

The Naughty List

  • It’s length is a doubled edged sword. While a short film, it’s pacing is rather slow compared to the film short that preceded it. You feel every minute of celluloid. Some minutes even feel doubled. Watching it this time, I was able to appreciate how this creates atmosphere and comments upon a different lifestyle than the one I’m used to living, but when I watched it the first time; it felt like Rosemary’s Baby all over again.
  • It won’t feel very Christmassy to some when you consider that the profession of the main family is to kill Rudolph for its meat. The film could risk dampening your Christmas spirit, depending on your outlook. Me? I’d eat Rudolph for Christmas dinner if he tasted good.

The Nice List

  • It’s a short film at 82 minutes and if I was well versed in the original language it would feel even shorter than it already does.
  • Subtitles aren’t for everyone. Even I sometimes veto a film on original language alone, the only thing I hate more being a poor dub. Original language films get my attention better when I’m in a cinema and free of all distractions. That said, I would never want to see this film given a Hollywood treatment; it’s more about the culture and mythology than anything else.
  • The kid (Onni Tommila) holds his own in the film and it’s quite refreshing to have a young lead in this type of film.
  • I know this is stupid thing to pick up on, but I loved seeing Pietari using nails in a candle as an alarm clock. It’s such a vivid image that immediately came to mind before I started my rewatch.

Final Thoughts

It’s not one for the whole family and certainly one that would make very few people’s regular festive viewing. That said, with the lifestyle Swedish and Finnish becoming popular within the UK, this should be on everyone’s list to ensure they’re of an understanding that life isn’t all about hygge hipster bullshit that’s now bordering on a stereotype.