X-Men First Class (2010)

I got the lurgy early November and my dad rented this for me to watch which was fun because I'd been meaning to see it, especially as I now work in a comic shop!
I enjoy the X-Men films, in fact I enjoy a lot of the Marvel films despite having no interest in any Marvel comics (apart from Frank Miller's Electra and Daredevil). I enjoyed this one too.
Fassbender's pretty damn good isn't he? If he hadn't have been in the film it would have been a lot of shite, the only highlight being Hugh Jackman's two word cameo. I liked Magneto and his past and his relationship with Bluey. The rest was pretty shite though, 'specially Kevin Bacon and his lame gang!
I don't know about James MacAvoy being miscast, I think he would have made a very good young Prof X if only the script hadn't been so awful! Why did the writers choose to write him as a cocky arsehole? It wasn't his fault. If they'd written him serene and wise and not a sexpest I'm sure he would have been very convincing.

Stardust (2007)

I refused to see this film at the cinema purely on the basis it contained Ricky Gervais, a man so undeserving of fame and fortune it makes my flesh-crawl, or perhaps he just makes my flesh crawl, anyhoo- I saw it on TV a year ago and I adored it. Just to make things clear, I think that even though Gervais is perfect for the part (a flesh-crawly creep) they could have got an actor in, after all, the film is full of talent, why not go the whole hog!?

Yes, Stardust is a joy, a magical fantastical, adventure in the vein of The Princess Bride, it's not as clever or funny but it's more action packed AND there's more British actors! Yes, there are a couple of bum notes in it; Sienna Miller is awful, but again, playing an appropriately hateful character. The lead could do with being a bit more charming and definitely could do with being more handsome, but if he were too handsome (see The Princess Bride) there wouldn't be any point in having such an amazing ensemble! Robert De Niro and Dexter Fletcher are great together, Michelle Pfeiffer is super hot, and my god, Mark Strong (see above) is gorgeous! Hooray for wigs!!!

Merlin and the Sword (1985)

Me and Lauren watched this masterpiece on saturday morning with our breakfast. It was actually very entertaining in a total trash way, you would never guess it was made in 1985, it looks like 1970.
The best bit was the dragon fight at the end and the many shots of Rupert Everett's gormless face. I wanted a picture of his gormless face for the review but there is practically nothing on the internet about this film other than weird youtube videos of naked Rupert... Oh, and a trailer that someone has put their own narration on to, I can't really see how the original narration could have been much different to tell you the truth.

The Lovely Bones (2010)

When I moved into student halls a good while back I met my good friend Shona for the first time, she was obviously a big reader, but on closer inspection though there were a lot of books in her room, a lot of it was shite! Sort of like when people see that I'm into films but when they get up close to my film collection they notice it's full of crap that you've never heard of and would never want to see! The book Shona was reading when we met was The Lovely Bones.

So we went to see the film and I was horrified at most of it and had a lot of problems with the story but Shona was crying her eyes out, apparently it was pretty faithful to the book!

Here's the Brownie points: Mark Wahlberg was a brilliantly convincing dad, I know that my dad would definitely be out there with a baseball bat dealing out justice for my murder. Susan Sarandon gave a good comic turn but it felt extremely uncomfortable to watch considering the rest of the film. Stan Tucci was terrifying, that was a really nice bit of creepy character acting *shudder!* but my first comment after the film was: "As if a paedophile would have such gorgeous eyes!"

Problems: The film was far too long (I was starving), the lead girl has Martin Short's face and the writer's idea of Heaven was utterly horrendous and sick-making... So "Heaven" was where you could hang out with all the other little girls who got raped and murdered by Stan for all eternity! Wow, sounds great! Glad I'll never be able to forget what happened to me!!

Not my cup of tea!

Children's Films; Coraline(2009), Penelope(2006), Prince Charming(2001)

Well, you can gladly forget anything nice I said about Martin Short a couple of weeks ago, Prince Charming was diabolically bad. A horribly weak version of Les Visiteurs with terrible cgi and a waste of Bernadette Peters and Billy Connolly.

So I joined the library and rented three films last week- children's films of course.

We in the house of Children's Illustration had been told by our friends that Coraline was worth a watch, Linn insisted it was traditional animation (it was actually a combination of cgi and stop-motion) and Lauren insisted you had to see it drunk and in 3D... It was a really trippy film that started off too quickly and then went on and on and on. We were all sober and had no idea what was happening. But it looked pretty and the casting of Teri Hatcher's voice as a disgusting bony old witch was spot on.

Penelope could have been much better than it was but it also suffered from a rushed, confused beginning and far too many sexual innuendos (in your end-o) for a children's flick- though not as many as Prince Charming which was frankly GROSS. The cast was good and everyone did well with their American accents (to accommodate three actual Americans in an all British ensemble). Lots of underused actors (including the romantic lead James MacAvoy!) Russell Brand appeared for no reason and didn't even get any jokes so you can't blame him for the innuendos. It was funny however to see Nigel Havers a self proclaimed Letter Box Actor turn up as someone's dad; brilliant over-acting, just what you need in a kids' film- So in this sense of course Richard E. Grant as Penelope's dad was also brill.

Dark City (1998)

It looked and felt like Brazil(1985) except more polished, unfortunately there was not one joke in the whole film. Keifer Sutherland was doing a camp impression of Peter Lorre so that was sort of funny, but not really... I felt as though I'd seen the story a hundred times, though at first it was ridiculously confusing. But I hadn't read a description so I had no idea what it was about- I had no idea what it was about for a whole hour!

I like Rufus Sewell and he was definitely handsome in this film and Jennifer Connelly was gorgeous, remember she used to be so lovely and pale and not-anorexic!

But in the end you can sort of tell the caliber of a film when the bad guys walk in and they're Richard O'Brien and Ian Richardson.

Ho hum.

Bronson (2009)

Tom Hardy is a bloody good actor. I really liked this film but if it had been anyone else it I don't think it would have worked.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Another one of Dad's 1 quid rentals, and one I wasn't really keen on seeing, I think Richard Herring described it as a series of swears that he couldn't even watch in one sitting (I think it was three in all) so I wasn't really bothered, but as it is Father's Day we, the daughters, sat and watched it with Papa.

And it wasn't that bad, the special effects weren't total crap, they were ok, it was only really at the beginning for the baby and a split second towards the end; Brad's face all photoshopped to fuck.

It was a long film and every ten minutes or so we'd argue over how old everyone was supposed to be which was fun until Brad stayed forty for about ten years and Cate Blanchett seemed to be getting younger...

The best bits of the film on a visual level were of course when Brad looked young and fabulous à la Jimmy Dean on his bike, but story-wise we all agreed that when Jared Harris' character died it started to drag.