True Grit

Based on the classic story, a young girl (Hailee Steinfeld) is out to avenge her father’s death.  The girl is headstrong and stubborn, she knows what she wants.  She manages to get some money and a horse.  She finds Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), a man who has lost count of the number of people he has shot; he is mean and true grit but he takes a while to get off his horse.  Her room is taken by a texas ranger, la Boeuf , Matt Damon.  She negotiates an agreement with Cogburn and he asks her to set off tomorrow.  She finds that Cogburn has left with la Boeuf.

The adventure takes over when they set off.  Their adventure is endearing and thrilling.  It is a very calm western, with gun slinging action really in the last second half.  La Boeuf wants some respect as a texas ranger and does decide to do his own thing, but gets shot and bites his own tongue.  He acts with a bitten tongue, very cool.  Cogburn and La Boeuf always try to get one over on each other and be the best.

It must have been shot in the wilderness as it is all so realistic and makes you feel like your there. The atmosphere at times is just great.

With an eventful adventure, I could easily watch this again, the story is 1st class and the ending is majestic.

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Rating 8/10

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The Aviator

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as the famous millionaire, film producer, playboy, recluse Howard Hughes.  This biopic of his life shows his obsession with airplanes and his decay into the neurotic OCD obsessive weirdo that we read about in the newspapers and wondered how anyone could keep bottles of their own piss and grow their nails until they were so long their fingers can’t function.  Leonardo plays Hughes so well in fact that after the neuroses creep in you have bought into it and don’t think of him as leo anymore.  You can watch the transformation into the germaholic from the very beginning.  Cate Blanchett does the Katherine Hepburn larger than life droll voice and manly mannerisms very well for someone who does not resemble Hepburn. Kate Beckinsale simply looks like Ava Gardner. It is not the usual Scorcese film set.  We are shown Hollywood elitism and time is spent in the air rather than on the ground and, these scenes are rather good, notably a crash landing just short of the Beverly Hills Wiltshire Hotel as was back then.  We are in technicolour it seems with strange colours being brought out reminiscent of the Wizzard of Oz.  Well over 2 hours this movie does not feel as long as it really is and I would probably watch it again just to see DiCaprio carrying yet another film to victory.  Other famous faces, Jude law, Alec Baldwin and Gwen Steffani also star.  Scorsese never relies on fresh blood. In summary, a detailed and authentic biopic of Hughes’extraordinary life.
IMDB The Aviator

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Rating:  8.2/10

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The Last Samurai

Tom Cruise stars in this action war adventure as an American war hero who has fought the American Indians in his home land.  He is asked to serve in the civil war of Japan.  He gets captured by the Samurai and is kept in their society.  He can not escape due to the fierce winter.  He begins to learn Japanese and embraces their culture.  When he is released, both sides of the civil war have been revealed and he must decide which side to take.  He chooses the Samurai.

Tom Cruise fits the perfect American captain, Nathan Algren.  Billy Conolly is present at the beginning, he dies in the first action encounter which does the film good as he is incredibly annoying.  Timothy Spall is casted too.  Ken Watanabe is the Samurai leader, Katsumoto.  He excels his role and makes the Samurai village atmospheric.

The story only really starts when he gets captured.  There is obviously fighting and dueling, which was necessary.  It was done originally and very you felt like you were watching it in the village.  Slow motion effects and atmospheric brilliance from Tom Cruise.

Even though it is biased towards the samurai, you are engrossed and you feel for Ken Wantanabe.  Needed the beginning chopped and the war at the end left out or made shorter, could have been an all time favourite.  The ending is beautiful.

IMDB The Last Samurai

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Rating: 6.9/10

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Casino

Mobsters set up gambling casinos in Los Vegas in the 1980’s so they could cream of the money.  Very closely based on truth, a 1983 newspaper headline story.  The Tangiers Hotel is one of these  greedy scams run by Robert De Niro (Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein) for the mob.  The fab opening scene sees a car bomb go off and you know this is going to be a violent film from the start.  Mobster friend and ally Joe Pesci (Nicky Santoro) is a hitman who loses his temper easily and tries to make a killing on the casinos by cheating until he is banned from every casino.    Sam does not have a license for his casino, to avoid detection he changes his job title regularly and sooner or later the trail of felony leads to his door curtesy of Nicky.   Sharon Stone (Ginger McKenna plays the girlfriend who becomes Mrs Rothstein.   Robert De Niro wears incredible pink suits.  The film does not have tension running through it and the narrative is long and laboured and it could easily have been cut down to 2 hours from a whopping 3!.  However, Sharon Stone puts in a good performance as the girlfriend and their relationship is believable.

IMDB Casino

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Rating: 7.5/10

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Avatar

‘Alice in Wonderland’ meets ‘National Geographic’ this is a 3D sci-fi movie that is of another class produced and directed by James Cameron of Titanic fame. The hero, a young marine who has lost the use of his legs in combat is in homeostasis travelling towards Pandora a planet in another solar system.  He has been in stasis for 5 years and 9 months.  On arriving at the planet he learns that his twin brother, the eminent scientist, has been assassinated and that his own DNA is so close that he could be considered a replacement to the project  even though he has had none of the necessary lengthy training.  Sigourney Weaver is the Project Manager she reluctantly puts our young hero into the dream state that allows him to become an Avatar and roam the planet as an alien and become one of “them”.   This involves him linking into another being that has been artificially made to look and behave like the native aliens.  They are blue, his names is Jake Sulley.  He is able to walk and fly and be successful and free in his dream world.  He falls in love.  There is the matter of the army who enlist his help to gain access to the precious metals underneath the alien colony, they want him to win the respect of the colony and move everyone out.

This movie encapsulates the magic and imagination of another world.  I loved many many things about this movie, but I won’t spoil them for you.

IMDB Avatar

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Rating: 8.4

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The Tourist

Johnny Depp is the tourist, an American mathematics teacher who travels.  Angelina Jolie is a spy who has instructions to find a person who can impersonate her partner.  She finds Johnny Depp on a train, there is a romantic link and he ends up in a hotel by himself and more than desperate to find her again.   Depp manages to get himself embroiled in her business as the lookalike and saves the day.   Jolie  burns her instructions and the burnt fragments are found and stuck back together again – brought back from the ashes with ointment (honestly) just trying to be too be clever, especially at the ending which did not complement rest of film.  Was silly and funny at times, but lacked engagement.

IMDB The Tourist

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Rating 5.3/10

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Knight and Day

Cameron Diaz (June) arrives at the airport but Tom Cruise (Roy Miller, Secret Agent) tries to stop her boarding her flight.  One of the best beginnings to any film follows on board the plane and if the whole film was this good it would be a knock out 10 but unfortunately things get a little unreal and although very funny in places and warmly memorable, the storey is haphazard.  Cruise has to save a scientist and his invention from falling into the wrong hands.  Diaz copes very well in the mayhem and if she doesn’t then he drugs her and she usually wakes up somewhere else!  Feels like you are in and out of consciousness yourself as you struggle to figure out how they got where they did and why.

A light movie which is entertaining.

IMDB Knight and Day

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Rating: 7/10

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Pirates of the Caribbean ~ On Stranger Tides

Jonny Depp reprises his role as Captain Jack Sparrow together with his trusty pirate companion (Kevin McNally) Mr Gibbs and (Geoffrey Rush) Captain Barbossa now with one wooden leg.  Penelope Cruz was wasted in her role as Black Beard’s daughter, which was far too careful not to overshadow Jonny Depp for some reason and in my opinion she should have nailed this little part but didn’t succeed! The story line is who gets to the fountain of youth first and the script was probably made up as they went along as it was non-existent really.   Nothing is subtle just blow up the whole damn set for us that is what we paid to see didn’t we? Well the fountain of youth gets the same treatment so don’t expect anything of any significance to happen there much except another fight because they all want the same thing and arrive at the same time. Fight scenes consist of arms and legs and swords flailing around and they try to talk between slashes but the camera follows all the action and makes you sick. Depp says of one lot of fighting “look the quarrel is between those two lets just stand here and get paid”, but, they have a stupid fight and more scenery gets spoiled. There are some lovely underwater special effects with the mermaids which are rather good, and expect to see a mermaid loosing her tail and gaining two legs.

Summing up:   I am very, very cross and it gets a 6 rating for being a load of noise, no swashbuckling pirates theme or proper choreography, no clever banter, no story line, no feelings for any of the characters except touchingly perhaps the missionary who falls for the mermaid.  There is nothing really much to say about Black Beard and the ending is very disappointing. No spoilers but I could sum it up in one word “cheated”. HOPE 3d VIEWERS HAD MORE FUN!!!!!

IMDB Pirates of the Caribbean ~ On Stranger Tides

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Rating 6/10

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Blood Diamond

You will never feel the same about diamonds again!  It is 1999, it’s the civil war in Sierra Leone in Africa.  Solomon Vandy is the award winning actor Dijmon Honsou who is in slavery sieving diamonds, finds a priceless pink blood diamond and buries it. When  DiCaprio as Danny Archer, the smuggler, discovers the African who hides it, they go searching for it which is near enough impossible in the political environment but this priceless diamond could get Archer out of the troubled continent and bring Solomon’s family back together.  DiCaprio finds Jennifer Connolly a journalist and realises he needs her help.

While very sad and sometimes upsetting, the movie has many emotional swings right from the start as the African father loses his family and his son to a tribal army.  DiCaprio is excellent, with a believable South African accent. The characters had depth and the film was steeped in the reality of history i.e. real events which DiCaprio certainly makes you watch on the edge of your seat.

IMDB Blood Diamond

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Rating: 8.1/10

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