I died for your sins, so accordingly, here are some inane musings to contemplate...

Friday, December 10, 2010

Films in 2010 - November (16 / 168)

No End In Sight - Iraq's Descent Into Chaos - a disturbing doco about just how royally screwed up the war in Iraq went and how just a few men in the White House made horrendously bad decisions that aided Iraq descending into turmoil and how frustrated the people on the ground were at the lack of vision from the top. Scary stuff to think how stupid and war mongering some people can be. A lot of this stuff I had absolutely no idea about, very educational. 4/5

*Gremlins 2- The New Batch - total classic, still love it. 4/5

Frozen - 3 idiots get trapped on a ski lift and non one's gonna come for them or miss them any time soon. Surprisingly entertaining, mostly so you can laugh at their dumb decisions - "yes, let's jump off this chair feet first onto hard snow, my legs will be fine!" 3/5

The Mist - absolutely idiotic horror film which only gets points for some interesting creature designs. Ending was obvious it was coming but fun all the same. 1.5/5

The Last Airbender - M Night Shyamalan takes a wonderfully funny, poignant and well scripted cartoon, chops off its head and shits down its neck. Points only for including Appa and Momo. 0.5/5

The Crazies - a remake of a John Romero film (which I haven't seen). It had its moments but is pretty much a ho-hum kinda horror film. Has a few annoying plot holes. 2.5/5

Fair Game - fascinating dramatisation of the CIA agent exposed by her own government because her husband spoke out about the lies that started the Iraq War. Sean Penn and Naomi Watts are both very strong and perfect for these roles. The more I read and see about how the US invaded Iraq the more I see just how evil a few men at the top truly are. 4/5

Gamer - quite gory and hyper-realistic frenetic mish-mash of a film. Had a few good moments but overall pretty stupid stuff where actual people are controlled by other humans in both a social networking game and a game of brutal death. Dumb and somewhat fun in parts. 2/5

Addicted To Plastic - quite a scary doco about just how much plastic we waste and how much of it ends up in our seas - seriously there are millions of tonnes of it out there - and how it ends up in our food chain. Has some interesting interviews with people and companies that are truly recycling plastics, and not just making pointless objects but some are putting it to great use. 4/5

The Disappearance of Alice Creed - a taut UK thriller that has a few surprises but ends up a little on the predictable side in the final third. Really goes to show you, though, what can be done with a tight script, 3 or 4 locations and only 3 actors in the entire film. 3.5/5

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 - not as bad as the last one, not as good as the third, better than the first. I think it was only watchable because I knew about the story but even then a few things still had me scratching my head. Extra 1.5 for the great 3 brothers animation. 3.5/5

*War of the Worlds - great fun. 3/5

*Forgetting Sarah Marshall - still such a great comedy, probably not something I could watch again and again and again but still great. Also still too much of Jason Segel's wang. 4/5

*Pineapple Express - another good stoner comedy, James Franco is brilliant in this. 3/5

*Wall-E - brilliant, Pixar only did better with Toy Story 3 and The Incredibles. 4.5/5

GasLand - scary doco about the process of Fracking for natural gas reserves across the US where people are being poisoned by the fracking water mixing with their drinking water and how the Federal Government changed the laws to allow it. Isn't brilliantly made but the message behind it is quite powerful, especially when they clearly show people setting their tap water on fire!!! 3/5