Fourteen*4

30 years ago today Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released in cinema...

Men Who Stare At Goats

Imaginarium

There is finally a trailer for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which is to Heath Ledger's final film (as i am sure you are all aware).



The movie looks amazingly fantastical and i am sincerely hoping that it holds up well after the changes forced by Ledger's passing, but regardless his performance looks to be at the same standard as The Dark Knight. There is a bittersweetness to the trailer as you watch a man, so talented and yet so far away now. I feel the final line of the trailer expresses this explicitly;

"Nothing's permanent. Not even death"

That's the thing about death, Ledger has been immortalised through his films and it is not beyond their capability to 'ressurect' him (so to speak).

Review – The Proposal

Myself, Liz and another couple went and saw The Proposal last night, which I class as yet another typical Sandra Bullock film with the addition of Ryan Reynolds providing comedic backup. The story was typical of the genre and the majority of the ‘twists’ were predictable – it would have been a nice difference if Bullock’s character rejected Reynolds’ at the end, but that is not what the audience is looking for.

Bullock provided her usual performance, which was decent as per usual. It would be nice to see her stretch into a weaker role with a character that was not as headstrong or alpha ‘male’ as such. The roles that she undertakes are generally the same or similar and it is not like she is unattractive and would not be able to perform in a more feminine role. Reynolds’ performance was not as headstrong as he has appeared in other films and a result of this was a noticeable reduction in his comedic applications throughout. The nature of his humour relies upon sarcasm and his performance does benefit from this reduction, although if the producers wanted the film to be more of a comedy than it was the writer’s should have provided Reynolds with more material. The few special effects that were evident in the film, such as the dog and eagle sequence were poorly and obviously executed with much room left for improvement.

Overall the film wasn’t too bad, an above average romantic comedy that still suffers from the fault of including a wedding that seems to drag films down to a point. The lead actors performances were adequate for the medium but in no way near their personal bests.

Story – 5
Lead Cast Performance – 6.5
Supporting Cast Performance – 6
Special Effects – 2.5
Audio – 5

5/10

The Future Begins

I saw the new Star Trek film the other week and must confess that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I am by no means a Trekkie in fact best a self-confessed Star Wars nut, which is perhaps why I liked this film more than its predecessors.

The main issue that I have had with Star Trek is that there is far too much talking and technical jargon that unless you are familiar with the universe there is no chance of your understanding completely what is occurring and taking much from the film. The generally agreed upon difference between Wars and Trek is that Star Wars is ‘cooler’ because it is for a wider audience and Star Trek is just too nerdy.

In my opinion the latest Star Trek film is far more a Star Wars movie than your typical Trek adventure – fast paced, a lot of action and no getting bogged down in unnecessary scenes that involve the characters talking about doing something that they should really be doing right there and then.

The story was solid, the special effects were amazing (ILM out did themselves once again) and the sound and score worked very well. The moments of silence I the space battle scenes as crew members were sucked into the vacuum of space (where there is no sound) worked perfectly as a quiet moment, allowing the audience to regather their senses from the overload of the initial fight sequence and take a quick breather before again diving headfirst into the action.

Chris Pine’s performance was reminiscent of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo or Indiana Jones as it was William Shatner’s Kirk (Pine has stated that he looked to Ford for inspiration on how to make the character his own) and Zachary Quinto finally stretched his acting talents beyond Heroes and proved that he is (as we thought) a talented actor who throws himself completely into a role (shaved his magnificent eyebrows for the role, as well as cutting his hair to Spock-styling). Oh and Eric Bana!!! I think I’ve said enough there.

Since I have not seen enough Star Trek films to perform an adequate comparison, this film is definitely better than Star Wars Epsiodes I-III but not quite to the standard of IV and definitely nowhere near V and VI.