sensationalgirl-2011's Reviews

Collateral (2004)

12 July 2011

Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, and Jada Pinkett Smith all rise to the occasion in Collateral, and together they transcend their previous appearances on film. Mark Ruffalo gives a good performance as the cop who knows everything is not what it seems.

The soundtrack is also excellent, with a mixture of popular music and ambient tracks perfectly-timed and synced to the story... tribal drumbeats during the chase scenes, haunting rock ballads at pivotal moments, and one track that reminded this viewer of the scene at the other end of Tom Cruise's career, when he drives his father's Porsche out of the garage in "Risky Business" to the accompaniment of a thumping synth track. A bizarre side-note, I know.

As the movie builds to a climax, the police are hunting for Max, believing he is the one on a killing spree, and Vincent stalks his final victim in a blacked-out high-rise office to a backdrop of the brilliant LA skyline, reflected in multiplicity by the office's dozens of glass cubicles.

There are a few minor plot points which didn't sufficiently suspend my disbelief (like when Max agrees to take Vincent the vicious hit-man to see his Mother in the hospital), but overall this is a fantastic movie.

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The Tourist (I) (2010)

Johnny's Frank is delightful, touching and slightly mysterious.

12 July 2011

We're all used to seeing Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in dramatic roles - Finding Neverland, Public Enemies, The Changeling, A Mighty Heart... and it's so easy to forget that they can be funny. But they are, both of them. Johnny shines, as he always does. Angelina Jolie looks glorious, and when she smiles, the screen lights up. They don't have chemistry, critics say. Oh yes, they do, I say. More importantly, they seem to be enjoying themselves.

Johnny's Frank is delightful, touching and slightly mysterious. He has endless room to play around, and makes Frank memorable, and lovely, as only Johnny can. Angelina's role is more limiting, but she still makes it fresh and - yes - deeply amusing, parodying both herself and the genre in general. Watching her saunter around on her high heels, one can't help but recall what James Bond used to be like. This isn't Wanted or Salt: she has far more to do here than look cryptic and shoot people, and she does it very well.

Add to that the utterly magnificent Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton, a few stereotypically dim Russian gangsters (they speak actual Russian, for once, and their funniest lines aren't subtitled) and Rufus Sewell, and there's no way you can go wrong.

Yes, there's a twist at the end - a twist that seemed to annoy most people. But does that take away from the film? No! It adds to it, because it's just so obvious, and natural, that it's all the funnier for it.

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Salt (2010)

Very little of the plot makes any sense

12 July 2011

It stars Angelina Jolie as a CIA agent who is exposed as a Russian sleeper agent by a Russian defector. Whether she is one or not, her bosses (Chiwetel Ejiofor and Liev Schreiber) decide to keep her under wraps. She'll have none of that, though, as she fears for the safety of her spider expert husband. So basically, like Bourne, it's about a defecting agent running from her employers while simultaneously trying to foil the bad guys. The film does have a couple of semi-clever twists, but it also contains a metric ton of stupidity. There's no real set-up for Jolie being some kind of Bourne-like superwoman, yet as soon as the action sequences start she's either MacGuiver or Jackie Chan. Weighing in at about 95 pounds (seriously, Angie, eat a burger) she's able to beat the everloving crap out of every trained CIA, FBI or Secret Service agent who gets in her way. The filmmaking is reminiscent of Bourne, but, unlike Bourne, the choreography is confusing and implausible. Very little of the plot makes any sense, from the reason for the initial exposure to Jolie's motivations to the final sequence. Any moderate examination reveals the film to make no sense whatsoever.

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011)

The product-placement is out of control

12 July 2011

Warning: Spoilers

The best thing about these movies is how they look, how well the transformers integrate into the real-life footage to make a compelling action sequence. Here it's cranked to eleven, and the CG is very impressive. On the larger shots, even tiny transformers far in the background look convincing.

There a several action set pieces (specifically towards the end) which are easily some of the best of the trilogy. The whole scene with the collapsing building and the tracking shot of Optimus slicing and smashing his way through a bunch of decepticons are colossal showstoppers.

This is also one of the best 3D movies to date. One major critique of 3D is that 3D glasses make the film darker, but here they do a very smart thing, the film itself is brighter than your average movie and this problem evens itself out. Another thing that worried me before I saw it is that if there was so much high-speed action maybe that and the combination of 3D would give me motion sickness, end of the movie: no problems.

The Bad

The villains suck. Megatron does absolutely nothing throughout the whole film until right at the end, and even that was a let down. Shockwave appears briefly at the start and vanishes for two hours, he himself doesn't actually do much, it's all down to this big nameless tentacle- clad decepticon he works with. Starscream does nothing, but then he never did anything anyway. I'm not even going to mention Patrick Dempsey. But the biggest let down is with the movies main villain "Sentinel Prime". Basically he is Optimus' predecessor but he changed sides to the decepticons and made a deal with Megatron to bring life back to their home planet Cybertron. This is the driving element of the movie, but there are many plot holes from this. Early in the film Optimus basically says he wants to make Sentinel Prime leader of the autobots again, and offers him the matrix (an item that brings dead transformers back to life) but Sentinel Prime declines. Then he changes sides. Why did he decline taking the matrix? it would in definitely be a help in his ploy. Sentinel Prime gets numerous chances to kill Optimus once and for all, but like all lousy villains he delays his hand and Optimus lives.

The product-placement is out of control. I am not joking when I say there is a scene where Shia LaBeouf stops the movie to recite a Mercerdes Commercial

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Creation (I) (2009)

It's a subtle movie

12 July 2011

It's a subtle movie (not over-exaggerated in any way in that typical Hollywood way, this is a BBC produced British film) yet thankfully very powerful in meaning and this is thanks to the amazing well directed scenes as well as the superb acting by Bettany. Connelly acts as more of a light supporting role but I did enjoy her in this and she's as good as to be expected as always, her chemistry alongside her husband was definitely strong and endearing, you could feel the connection, and their real-life husband/wife bond definitely shines through their performances. But the star of the show is definitely Bettany and he does a brilliant job, a very touching performance- i both understood and sympathised with him as he battled his own degrading health and impending "insanity" to try to understand what he has uncovered and come to terms with what it all really is and means as he found his thinking contradict his feelings, and found himself losing it all including his wife who of course was a firm believer in religion and a strict Christian whilst he was in the realm of science, two worlds which could not see eye to eye, so their relationship was at stake too.

Anyway- a really very good, well acted emotional drama and dare I say I did shed a tear during the tragic climax which was truly heartbreaking as well as beautifully poignant and moving. The film is symbolic and very intellectually artistic as well, in fact i can't wait to watch it again as there was a lot to take in first time round which i missed. Easily one of the best films i've seen this year.

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The Taste of Relation (2009)

9/10

Excellent performances and a touching story

12 July 2011

Wow! Fantastic film in my opinion, i wasn't expecting it to be this good! I was captivated from start to finish- it's a very well made and educational film that really gives us a fascinating insight.Relationship,sacrifice,emotions and its importance is shown like never been seen before.

Anyway- a really very good, well acted emotional drama and dare I say I did shed a tear during the tragic climax which was truly heartbreaking as well as beautifully poignant and moving. The film is symbolic and very intellectually artistic as well, in fact i can't wait to watch it again as there was a lot to take in first time round which i missed. Easily one of the best films i've seen this year.All in all, it's quite an emotional roller-coaster, although not at the expense of recreating the world Still, this is a beautifully-made film.

I got my DVD and its really nice to listen the title song of the film as well.I am happy to have the film.

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Zombie Beach (2010)

9/10

Overall, the film was better than I expected

6 June 2011

I watched the movie with a few die hard fans who I talked to after the movie, and I will work some of their thoughts into the review.

As a story, I will admit, Zombie Beach is very catchy and interesting. Now I see what all the hype is about. If I was a young girl, I would go nuts over this stuff too. It's not just a Zombie and a human falling in love with each other, but because of the two leads, it's one of the best on screen romances for zombie genre movie.Let's not forget about the Zombie VFX and makeup, either.They were very well done.I do like the cinematography. The movie is gorgeous visually, and as i stated before the acting was not terrible. I would have picked different people for most of the cast except the character of Roshan and Vanessa, but thats me. I do have one more thing to say before i end this.The Music Video was the best part.

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