Being that this is such a popular movie and all, and the title is fairly obvious, I don't need to go over any plot points really. This is a good movie. Fact. It achieves what it set out to do, no, it exceeds. Maybe people think this is a 'typical' comedy, but really, it's unique in so many ways. The concept, where else have we seen this before? The dialogue, well, it's just witty. Well spoken and delivered with such comedic timing that I think so many comedies these days forget that it's not as much what you say but how you say it. Vince Vaughn plays his character so well, with such quick little jokes, the subtlety is just great. I feel this movie never made any promises it would be more than just a romantic comedy, and it's one of the best. It brings os much comedy to the romantic side, which I must say the characters have such deep chemistry it just makes sense. If you haven't seen it I don't know what you're waiting for. A great, no, phenomenal, comfort film.
8.5/10
Film#107 - Choke, 2008, dir. Clark Gregg
So we've all seen Fight Club and/or heard of it, or know of Chuck Palahniuk. He's not that great of a writer, but his ideas are have fresh takes and different style that makes them enjoyable. Choke is another film adaptation for him, and well, it's no Fight Club. The movie is incredibly sexual; literally every character, major or minor, has some form of sexual addiction of deviancy. It's full of Palahniuk's little quirks that I thought made Fight Club what it is, but they were executed poorly. The style of the film needed a serious reworking. The dialogue, well, I can't say it was bad but some actors delivered it badly. Anjelica Huston was a major fault of the film. She, well, I thought she was horrendously bad. On the other side of things I'm falling more in love with Sam Rockwell, that man can act. But I have to think this could have been done so much better with more care to each shot and pacing of the film.
6.5/10
Film#108 - Gosford Park, 2001, dir. Robert Altman
I was a big fan of Altman's Short Cuts, and any polyphonic film (multiple character storylines interweaved) is a big plus to me. Giant ensemble cast here. The general idea is there's a weekend party for rich people, and a bunch of servants helping out. The rich people are upstairs doing their thing, and some of them have brought personal assistants and such, and the help is all in the basement working away. I enjoyed the way this film dealt with such a large cast and making sure the audience can tell who is who; it's fairly crucial for a film like this to stress the names and roles of each character early on without making it seemed force and out of place, and this got it just right. The overall story is, well, not 'full' so-to-speak. Not too much happens. At times it made me think this would be a great setting for a movie version of Clue. In a way, and a very very slight way, it is. I'm not sure exactly what the film intended to say, but my take on it is that it shows the relations between upper and lower classes, in the ways the deal with problems, the social taboos, the masks people wear, as well as the way these classes directly interact. I have to admit it might take another viewing to fully understand it all, but I feel there is quite a bit to be learned here.
7.5/10
Film#109 - Orphan, 2009, dir. Jaume Collet-Serra
Of all I've seen this year, this is my least favourite. This will not be a pleasant review. This film, is an abomination. Loving family of four adopt a 9-year old girl, who over the course of the film, proves to be a complete nightmare. This film, to me, is so clearly trying to make something that can still shock audiences, trying to be terrifying and horrific. But it has in my opinion, gone way too far. I enjoy the horror genre, although I feel it gets a bad reputation (and rightfully so) from all the bad films put out into the mainstream. To sound pretentious for a second, I have to believe an age of subtlety and technique in producing horror and fear is gone, and what has replaced it is this mentality of "what can we do to make people absolutely sick to their stomaches?" Horror should be scary; it should put you on the edge of your seat, terrified for the protagonists. It should explore your fears and give you a place to express them. Stephen King once wrote that horror is a necessary part of people's lives, and to experience it keeps us from committing acts of horror ourselves; he says that we have 'crocodiles in our minds' and that horror feeds those crocodiles so they don't ever get out. This film, it didn't do any of this. The emotions is made me feel were not fright, anxiety, even sadness where appropriate. No, it made me frustrated, angry and disappointed. These are not things people wish to experience. You don't hear people come out of the theatre saying, "Wow hunny, I really needed a good 2 hours of frustration tonight." This movie plays on so many things in such bad taste I feel manipulated. It uses children and all the connotations that go along with them to not only taint their ideals but to go so far that it's entire 'shock value' is relying on this notion of hopelessness and complete destruction of what I would hold as positive values. Nothing good comes from this film. I'm sad to see such talented actors like Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard is such a terrible movie. This horrible, horrible movie achieved absolutely nothing for me that I can find any value in. If there is one movie you never see, let it be this.
3/10
