Saturday, October 20, 2007

28 Weeks Later

The movie 28 Days Later was the first horror film I actually took the time to sit down and enjoy, before that I was of the opinion that horror films were kind of lame and zombie films were especially so (having never seen any but being put of by the dull premise), that all changed when I went to see 28 Days Later by chance... this may make it sound like I'm in complete awe of 28 Days Later but that's only marginally true, I think it's an awesome movie. Well acted, well directed, well written, great soundtrack... I'm indebted to it for getting me into the genre I now enjoy frequently. Anyway, for this reason I was quite looking forward to the DVD release of
28 WEEKS LATER
I was waiting for the DVD release because it's a lot of effort to go to the cinema and unless we really need to see a movie (like Grindhouse! duh!) then it isn't worth it, and although 28 Days Later was such a great movie in my eyes, I didn't expect as much from a sequel. I'm thankful that I didn't expect too much because really it just followed the same theme outlines as the first one, which I'll explain in the rest of my review which will, as usualy, contain spoilers: The sequence of events was identical to the first movie in that first everyone's in danger, and more importantly, most people are dead, mid-way into the movie we are shown that everyone's safe thanks to the military guys! Soon after that we find that "Oh no, the military are actually the ones to be afraid of!". The only difference is that in this one you expected everything to go wrong despite the strong military presence, whereas in the first one there wasn't any real indication of what was going to go wrong and you didn't necessarily think it was going to go wrong for sure... is this review followable or am I just typing to myself here? I'm pretty sure I'm just incoherently typing nonsense... oh well, moving on to the soundtrack then I'll finish. I've heard a few people commend this movie on an excellent soundtrack! I'd agree if it were not for the fact that as far as I could tell it was the exact same music as the first film! Not that there's anything wrong with that, it is a sequel after all, but it's not like I watched Halloween 3 and thought "Oh what an original and fitting soundtrack!", no! Because it's the same as the first one! Anyway, the only gripes I have about this film are to do with it just being a run-of-the-mill sequel to the first film. I guess I had hoped the 28 Days Later sequel would be one of those rare sequels that in some ways surpasses the original in many ways, but it did not. The one thing I thought stood out as good about this movie is that in all the trailers we see that Robert Carlyle is the main character and it's a genuine shock when he's infected pretty early on! Bam! That's all.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Movie Related News Article

Saw this featured in The Onion recently and thought it very fitting...

New Wes Anderson Film Features Deadpan Delivery, Meticulous Art Direction, Characters With Father Issues

September 24, 2007 | Issue 43•39

LOS ANGELES—Fans who attended a sneak preview Monday of critically acclaimed director Wes Anderson's newest project, The Darjeeling Limited, were surprised to learn that the film features a deadpan comedic tone, highly stylized production design, and a plot centering around unresolved family issues.

"What will he think of next?" audience member Michael Cauley said. "And who could have foreseen the elaborately crafted '60s-era aesthetic, melancholy subtext, and quirky nomenclature—to say nothing of the unexpected curveball of casting Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and Bill Murray?"

In a recent review, New York Times film critic A.O. Scott also expressed surprise at the film's cutting-edge soundtrack, which features a Rolling Stones song and three different tracks by the Kinks.

I thought it very fitting...
I mean... 4 movies with the same basic plot-line, that's one thing but 5! I think he just pushed it a little too far and can't get away with just changing the setting to something quirkier each time he makes a movie. I was going to say that perhaps he should take someone else's story and direct it, forcing him to drop the quirks of his usual plot but when I look at imdb I see that his next work seems to be The Fantastic Mr Fox so I am compelled to shut my whining pie-hole.