Talk to us here at Rochford Life : 0786 342 7294 or E-mail us
    HOME    
Make a point of visiting us weekly!

Penny Glen’s Rants
The Generation Game
Part 6: A Downloadable Future? & New Films to Watch or Avoid
Another of Penny’s information packed overview of the new films, again making the rest of us  mortals think we know nothing about films.  This is Page 2 of this part of the article.
To return to Penny’s ‘front’ page, please  CLICK HERE
New Films Out to Watch or Avoid (Continued)

· The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
American remake of a Swedish classic – by David Fincher. I’ve always been a bit 50/50 with the Finch ever since he did his first film – Alien3. He seems to have rebelled with every film he made after that just as a big ol’ finger to the studio that bossed him around to carry on their ‘perfect’ franchise. He is an outstanding director, of that there is no doubt but he tends to do what I do in some situations. Focus on the unimportant instead of getting the story across. This film is not one of the ones I don’t like. It’s Fincher’s own interpretation of the actual subject matter by the late author Stieg Larsson instead of a remake of the other films starring Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander. This time we have a relative unknown – Rooney Mara as Lisbeth and the Bond powerhouse that is Mr. Daniel Craig as disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist. They are both characters in pain and they are both smart determined characters who want to be liberated. This is their story, but Fincher I believe has failed to correctly identify more with Lisbeth like the Swedish films and the original novel did. It is in fact HER story of abuse and mental problems that should have been the main focus, but Fincher splits it between Lisbeth and Mikael in the wrong way. This results in a longer film and a sub-plot that is often used as a means to an end instead of a portrait of a damaged girl, her strained relationship with a journalist and their fight to bring a murderer to justice. Unfortunately, nothing beats seeing a film in your own language so he’s got one on me there. Fincher also does what the Swedish one did not – he gave Mikael life. So I guess this is a film of sacrifices. If you focus on Mikael, you lose sight of Lisbeth and vice versa. See both to get the full effect guys, you shan’t be sorry. Oh and the dude from NIN did the music. LOVE the opening credits. You’ll see what I mean.

·  Chronicle
I saw this recently and absolutely loved it. Three high schoolers find a glowing blue rock, touch it and inexplicably get super powers. It is all explained, but I can’t any further without spoiling it. It’s also shot freehold with a camcorder while the boys ‘chronicle’ their changes from human to something more than that. I loved the way they took the typical super villain creation handbook and gave a contemporary twist. Please see this one, not to be missed.

·  The Artist
Now this one is interesting. It’s the silent film with actors of all nationalities that won all of the Oscars this year and pretty much every other award going...including best moustache.
It’s not for everyone I know that, but it’s charming little film with a throwback to the great films of old – with no sound. I seriously loved it because you know how I love something a little bit different. Film throws at me a momentous amount of crap so I have to sift through it and find the gems. This is definitely one of them. Please see when you’re in the mood.

·  Shame
Dubbed ‘a sexy drama’ by my manager, this film follows Brandon as he struggles with his inability to connect with humanity, his overwhelming emptiness and his futile effort to find something worth living for. Oh, and did I tell you he is a sex addict? Not for those of a nervous disposition, but worth it all the same. I loved it because of the man of the hour: Michael Fassbender. I am slightly biased....and I love it.

·  Underworld: Awakening
Stupid, useless monster movie with a bit of 3d thrown in and a leather clad hottie with guns and an attitude. Yes, really. One of the most useless sequels of all time, and although I love gore and violence – I can’t justify watching this again.

·  One for the Money
Also a useless romcom with the queen of the genre Katherine Heigl. Lacking the clever script of Knocked Up or even the brilliance of Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth – this is just silly. A woman tries to earn money as a bounty hunter. Ha Ha. If I had stitches, they would have burst all over the place by now.

·  Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
The Rock takes a kid and another guy to an Island to rescue Michael Caine who has quite obviously not got a lot to do between Batman films and needs the money. C.G.I. nonsense and really meant for kids. Something I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole.

·  Goon
Stifler from American Pie and a bunch of guys from Superbad team up to tell the riveting tale of a simpleton who gets chosen to be the punching bag of an Ice Hockey team. Great. Watchable only for the constantly brilliant Liev Schrieber. For no other reason.

·  Man on a Ledge
Sam Worthington is the desperate escaped convict who is threatening to jump from a very tall building if he doesn’t get what he wants. There is more than meets the eye with this heist thriller and it’s probably a good watch with mates. By no means the best thing ever or innovative in ideas but alright nonetheless.

·  The Sitter
I have avoided this one to tell you the truth, purely based on Jonah Hill and his inexplicable popularity. Things are going downhill faster than I predicted. Hopefully he should go the way of Jim Carrey and fizzle out eventually. A guy babysits and wants a ‘booty call’ with his girlfriend at her workplace. Trouble is, she’s a stripper. Utter unimaginable hilarity ensues with just the right amount of sarcasm from me.

·  Coriolanus
Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler try their hand at Shakespeare and succeed very well I might add. Only they’ve re-vamped it with the right amount of anarchy, guns, chaos and violence that ol’ Bill would have salivated at back in the day. Very entertaining.

·  Haywire
I thought this was going to be amazing. I was wrong. Unknown actress Gina Carano is a betrayed black ops soldier who must find out who wants her dead, who gave the word to kill her and which of her friends/colleagues she can trust. Sounds great right? What about all the brilliant male cast who back her up: Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas and Bill Paxton. Oh and what about the brilliant director Steven Soderbergh taking the helm? No, these things were not enough. I still hated it, I’m sorry to say and as per usual Michael Fassbender was the best thing in it – not down to bias I assure you. He plays another agent assigned with her to carry out a mission and then silently tries to kill her when back in the hotel room. The real let down here is Carano herself. Soderbergh didn’t like her voice so he tweaked it in post production – which says everything I need to know. Although an experience mixed martial arts expert, she still didn’t display any dominance to me and wasn’t believable at all in anything she did. Shame really, I think perhaps a more experienced actress and a script tweak could have improved this flick tenfold.


Top of Page

Continue to  Page 3 of this article

Return to  Page 1 of this article