Despicable Me

Despicable Me hits cinemas today so here's a link to my review over at Flickering Myth http://flickeringmyth.blogspot.com/2010/10/thoughts-on-despicable-me-2010.html

Reviews

Thought I should point out that all my reviews posted so far can be originally found on Flickering Myth http://flickeringmyth.blogspot.com/ It's a fantastastic website (mainly because they let me write for them!), so check it out.

I have also recently started writing for the wonderful website The Film Pilgrim http://www.thefilmpilgrim.com/ so when future reviews come out I'll direct you to which website they're featured on.

Thanks for reading!

Emmy Winners

2010 Emmy Winners and Nominees


Drama Series
Breaking Bad
Dexter
The Good Wife
Lost
Mad Men — Winner
True Blood.

Comedy Series
30 Rock
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Glee
Modern Family — Winner
Nurse Jackie
The Office.

Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad — Winner
Matthew Fox, Lost
Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Jon Hamm, Mad Men
Hugh Laurie, House.

Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Connie Britton, Friday Night Lights
Glenn Close, Damages
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU
January Jones, Mad Men
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer — Winner.

Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Andre Braugher, Men of a Certain Age
Michael Emerson, Lost
Terry O'Quinn, Lost
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad — Winner
Martin Short, Damages
John Slattery, Mad Men.

Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife
Rose Byrne, Damages
Sharon Gless, Burn Notice
Christina Hendricks, Mad Men
Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife — Winner.

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Steve Carell, The Office
Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm
Matthew Morrison, Glee
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory — Winner
Tony Shalhoub, Monk.

Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Toni Collette, The United States of Tara
Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie — Winner
Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine
Lea Michele, Glee
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation.

Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Ty Burrell, Modern Family
Chris Colfer, Glee
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family — Winner.

Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Julie Bowen, Modern Family
Jane Krakowski, 30 Rock
Jane Lynch, Glee — Winner
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
Sofia Vergara, Modern Family
Kristen Wiig, Saturday Night Live.

Made for TV Movie
Endgame (Masterpiece)
Georgia O'Keeffe
Moonshot
The Special Relationship
Temple Grandin — Winner
You Don't Know Jack.

Reality-Competition Program
The Amazing Race
American Idol
Dancing with the Stars
Project Runway
Top Chef — Winner.

Reality HostTom Bergeron, Dancing with the Stars
Phil Keoghan, The Amazing Race
Heidi Klum, Project Runway
Jeff Probst, Survivor — Winner
Ryan Seacrest, American Idol.

Variety, Music or Comedy Series
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart — Winner
Real Time with Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien

Scott Pilgrim Review

Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Directed by Edgar Wright
Starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, and Kieran Culkin

Synopsis: In order to date the girl of his dreams Ramona Flowers he must defeat her seven evil ex’s.

Having so much hype around a film can ensure that unless the film lives up to its expectations, it can leave you with a feeling of disappointment, which I’m afraid, was the case for Scott Pilgrim vs The World. I’m not saying the film was bad; in fact I really enjoyed it, it just wasn’t amazing. The cast were brilliant, and I’m big fan of Edger Wright, but there were some parts of this film that just didn’t work.

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is an unemployed bass player who spends his time rehearsing with his band and holding hands with his seventeen year old girlfriend Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). That is, until he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Completely infatuated, Scott pursues Ramona until they eventually begin dating. Unfortunately for Scott this means he must now defeat her seven evil ex’s.

The part of the film I really enjoyed most was probably the beginning. It was funny, witty, the acting was excellent, and I loved the perfectly balanced mixture between reality and the gaming world. Somewhere between the fight scenes I started to lose interest. The problem is that after the first battle the rest of the film is like a staccato of scenes; nothing flowed together and each scene seemed to jump into the next. The fight scenes themselves were great and each ex was very different from the previous, in terms of both appearance and supernatural abilities. The fights were well choreographed, entertaining, and I loved that each ex exploded into coins after being defeated.
What got tedious was Ramona disappearing or breaking up Scott with after every battle and Scott then moping around after her until the next fight sequence. By the fifth or sixth ex I was bored and wanted the film to be over. That being said the final fight sequence was by far the best, it’s just a shame that the time it took to get there felt a bit like being pulled in six different directions at once.

The film did have its good elements, and I think the cast was one of the reasons why I did enjoy the film. Ellen Wong as Scott’s seventeen year old slightly stalker-ish girlfriend was probably one of the best, although Kieran Culkin who played Wallace, Scott’s gay roommate, was another performance that I really enjoyed. Each of Ramona’s ex’s were played by some great actors, one of my favourites being Brandon Routh (although I am a slightly biased fan ever since Superman and Chuck), who had vegan superpowers.

While Scott Pilgrim isn’t amazing, it’s certainly worth viewing and deserves more box office attention than its competitors The Expendables and Eat, Pray, Love, just don’t expect the film to be as good as the hype.

Trailers

As I don't have any reviews to post at the moment I thought I'd put up some film trailers that I'm really looking forward to seeing:

127 Hours
Directed by Danny Boyle
Starring James Franco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-3AHv2E5jg

Unstoppable
Directed by Tony Scott
Starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC6QM8y0ejo

Easy A
Directed by Will Gluck
Starring Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Cam Gigandet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL7W6pEuAW0

Love and Other Drugs
Directed by Edward Zwick
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO0X4DQZKqk

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Directed by Thor Freudenthal
Starring: Zachary Gordon, Robert Capron, Rachel Harris, Steve Zahn and Chloë Grace Moretz

Synopsis: Greg Heffley (Zachary Gorden) is about to start middle school. He doesn’t know what to expect or more importantly, how he’s going to survive it. Thankfully his mum has bought him a diary journal to write it all down in. Based on the incredibly successful book by Jeff Kinney.

Ignoring the usual suspects of Dreamworks and Disney, trying to find a children’s film for anyone of any age to enjoy is near impossible. While Disney and Co can provide us with the brilliance of Toy Story and Finding Nemo, the studios can only churn out so many each year. Children however, have a minimum of 12 weeks off school every year, and that’s not including weekly sleepovers, birthday parties, or a boring Sunday afternoon. Searching through the cinema listings trying to find a film which your 10 year old will enjoy, but equally not make you want to claw your eyes and ears out, is an absolute challenge. A Diary of a Wimpy kid is not one of those films. A Diary of a Wimpy Kid, is brilliant.

The film follows Greg Heffley, a boy about to start the impending doom that is middle school. Just before starting school Greg’s mum buys him a diary journal to write down his thoughts and feelings about starting school. Apart from his older brother’s advice of “Don’t look/touch/talk/stand out/put your hand up/join any school activities/ or go to the bathroom” and his best friend Rowley’s advice “My mum said if I just be myself people will like me”, Greg has no idea how he is going to survive at middle school. But in a scale of coolness he places himself at about number 19, so he figures he’ll be okay. He friend Rowley on the other hand he thinks is about 152, so he’d better keep a close eye on him.

Unfortunately for Greg he ignores all of his brother’s advice and joins the safety patrol, the school play, has a short-lived stint in the wrestling team, gets the cheese disease, plummets to number 202 on the cool scale, falls out with his best friend and has to befriend the kid with hairy stomach freckles so he has someone to sit with on the cafeteria floor at lunch time.

From this description it might be difficult to imagine how such a film could appeal to everyone, but even a quick glance at the director and writers’ credits give you an idea of how much talent has been involved with this film. The director, Thor Freudenthal, has previously worked on the Stuart Little films, Disney’s The Haunted Mansion, and Hotel for Dogs, and although the film’s based on an incredible successful book, some of the screenwriters have credits including That 70’s Show, Mad About You, Freaks and Geeks, and Life As We Know It.

The industry expression “never work with children or animals” couldn’t be less true for this film. Children’s films are often synonymous with bad acting, however the cast were incredible. Zachary Gordon (Greg Heffley) was a comic genius and had me laughing almost non-stop even from the opening sequence. The supporting roles played by Robert Capron (Rowley) as Greg’s best friend and Chloë Grace Moretez (Angie) were superb and complimented each other brilliantly. While this was Capron’s first time with this type of leading role, Moretez who is well known for her parts in Kick-Ass and Let Me In, took a back seat role in this film, appearing mainly when the young boys needed help and advice the most.
What makes this film so appealing to such a wide audience is that all the characters are relatable. I have no idea or experience of what it would be like to be a boy starting middle school in America, yet I found myself rooting for Greg to survive each disastrous experience after another, and feeling their embarrassment of having to sit on the cafeteria floor at lunch time with Fregley, the ginger kid ranked number 201.

If you have kids, they’ll drag you to see it, if you don’t have kids; drag a friend to see it. Either way, Diary of a Wimpy kid is fun, hilarious and a guaranteed enjoyment.

The Rebound

The Rebound


Directed by Bart Freundlich

Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Justin Bartha

Synopsis: A single mum of two moves to the city to start a new life where she falls for a guy who is not only much younger than her, but also the babysitter.

Having not heard much about this film but feeling the trailer looked pretty generic I decided to keep an open mind for this film. Although I am not a fan of Catherine Zeta-Jones having only ever seen her act in The Mask of Zorro and The Haunting both of which were a good decade ago, I am quite partial to Justin Bartha, so I hoped I might enjoy the film.

The plot of the film, one which many television shows and future film releases seem to be focusing on, shows an older woman dating a younger man: a cougar. Being an avid fan of Courtney Cox in the TV show Cougar Town I felt that if the writers knew what they were doing this film could be funny, interesting and enjoyable. I was half right. Catherine Zeta-Jones plays Sandy, a recently divorced mother of two who moves to the city to start a new life and meets coffee shop worker Aram (Bartha) whilst apartment hunting. She mistakes a joke babysitting offer as a serious one and soon Arum finds himself working as a full time babysitter for Sandy. Inevitably the two spend more and more time together bonding over the kids and flirting with each and they get together. The only problem is he’s 24 and she’s...well, not.

This film works well until the couple get together. This part of the plot generally happens early to mid length into the film allowing enough time for the complication/problem to occur and a then resolution. In The Rebound it happens about three-quarters of the way through. In its delay of the romantic relationship between the two characters it actually saves the film from a worse fate. The lead up and very beginnings of the relationship include some actually witty dialogue and funny scenes, but their break up and five year montage before meeting again for me ruined almost everything previously good about the film. It felt as though the writers had no way of solving the problem of a substantial age gap in a relationship besides a five year montage complete with slow-mo giraffes running through the wilderness and the growth and then loss of Aram’s facial hair.

Catherine Zeta-Jones was actually better than I remember and carried the film well enough and while I struggled to accept Bartha as a 24 year old, it was nice to see him without the dire dialogue of National Treasure, and as director Bart Freundlich’s first major move into this genre he did well on keeping the some of the generic qualities these films have at bay. I wouldn’t recommend rushing to the cinema to see this film but if an evening of popcorn and a half-decent chickflick is what you need, it’s worth watching.