Gantz (DVD Review)

Based on the manga series, Gantz follows the story of Kei Kurano who upon a train crash is transported to an apartment high above the city, their he finds a hovering silver ball known as Gantz. They are given futuristic, supernatural equipment that gives them special abilities and are told to kill a certain alien. 

Having never read a manga in my life, i was slightly apprehensive to see this film but with film industry's getting increasingly interested in transferring manga to the big screen, I am growing more intrigued, so I gave it a watch. 

On being given the DVD to borrow, my initial reaction of reading the back was one of laughter. I'll be honest i thought it would be a bit of a joke. However i was very pleasantly surprised, the story was fresh and original, maybe a bit too original at times e.g alien who loves spring onions! But the film played on it's absurdity, they knew that aspects of the story were bizarre, and this film really works because of this factor. If they had taken everything in the film seriously it would have been cheesy and ridiculous. The aliens of which the characters are fighting are hilariously brilliant, and are so very original in every way, this creates brilliant fight scenes in which you have no idea what could happen. 

...Well i say all the aliens are great but unfortunately towards the end of the film the aliens get bigger, more generic and more boring. It was so disappointing to see that in a film with such originality they feel the need to throw a spanner in the works in the form of a giant gold Buddha. Sadly, although their appearances may be completely different, this alien Goliath reminded me of the ridiculous beast in Clash of the titans, and it pains me to compare even a scene of this film to the garbage that is clash of the titans, but it shows a depressing resemblance 

However ignoring that silly scene, on the whole I absolutely loved it. Showing such originality and flare, with good acting performances across the board and a thrilling and compelling story 

I'm giving Gantz 

80% 

Calum. Russell

Reboot!?

Apologies for not posting in a while, I've been bogged down with work e.t.c. I will be posting regular film reviews from now on!

Hard candy review

Hard candy is a thriller staring Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson. Hard candy follows the story of a young 14 year old girl (Page) who gets to know this elder man (Wilson) over the internet. They decide to meet up and eventually go back to the mans apartment where things take a dramatic unpredictable turn.

Before I watched the film I had no idea what it was about, I hadn't even seen the trailer, or read any other reviews.This was just as well, as by the end this film had me on the edge of my seat. This film is punchy, exciting and most important of all meaningful. The Director (David Slade) shoots the film in such a way that n
by the end of the film your rooting for the 'bad guy', which almost makes you question your own conscious.

The film is quite hard to watch at points, (without giving too much away) Ellen Page's character is a tad  and she (suggestively)  commits gruesome acts. This only adds to the strong story and even sparks some questions about the girl. Who is she? Why is she doing this? I even came to one conclusion that the girl could be representing the mans sub-conscious and that she may not even be real.

What this film does is realistically depict the sub-conscious of a pedophile, and it does this brilliantly. Yes it does this in a dramatic and at times 'over the top' way. The film still sticks with you long after you've seen it.

80%
Calum.Russell


FOR ANYONE READING THIS WITHIN A WEEK OF POSTING THIS REVIEW-

I just saw this film on BBC iplayer dated 03/03/12, so if you wanted to watch this film go to BBC iplayer now and click play!

Insidious (past review)

With the 'saw' franchise at its (depressing and three dimensional) end, a horror sized hole in Hollywood has been created. With insidious hoping to fill it. Insidious follows the story of a family who are looking to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called 'the further'. With quite a unique concept does insidious deliver? and above all, scare?

The effective technique to 'show as little of the villain as possible' in a horror film applies to Insidious all too much. This isn't a problem for the 1st half of the film, as the majority of the first 45 minutes doesn't include the main bad guy only his 'ghost henchmen'. When the main villain is eventually reveled to us the shocking effect of his first appearance quickly wears of, as he is showed time and time again. If they had just held back his screen time he would have been much more scary and shocking. Unfortunately this villain who was supposed to be the main centerpiece of the scares turns out the be the main centerpiece of the laughs.Saying that, I thought that some scenes where absolutely terrifying, showing sparks of genius at times.Especially at one point, which has to be one of the most unsettling scenes in horror film history ( in my opinion) I won' spoil it, all i'll say is 'tiptoe through the tulips'! The scares are partly down to tempo of the film, it takes a while to get started but once it does the scares hit hard in some clever sequences, this creates a really tense atmosphere that had me in hysterics. However i couldn't help but feel let down after the film as the terrific scares in this film are ruined by the ridiculous and unrealistic plot. As the plot gets more and more silly throughout the film, new characters are added, which just increases my annoyance! 3 characters enter the film who provide no scares or suspense whatsoever, they just drag the film down and pull the viewers away from the suspense by providing awful comedic value.

This film provided terrifying moments at times, but the disappointing lack of realistic plot dragged the film down. If this film had maintained its suspense that was created by the 'ghosts' in around the 45 minute mark, this film would be a real winner and one worthy of attention.

I want to give this film 8/10 but the lack of plot, silly characters and unconvincing, tame bad guy means that i have to give this film...

7/10
Calum. Russell

Chronicle review

 When the words 'superhero movie' are said, immediate thoughts draw to; Iron man, spider-man, batman and maybe even the awful spoof film of 2006! Competing with such superhero companies as D.C and Marvel and also going against the superheroes that most know and love, is quite a risky plan. Which is why I believe the recent release of Chronicle is such a interesting and important one. Not only does it compete against the big companies, it also offers something new and fresh as the whole film is shot with handheld cameras.

 

In the spring of last year I went to see X-men first class at my local cinema, and one (of the many!) aspects of the film I disliked was the fact that none of the teenage characters seemed to show any kind of personality, we didn't even get back stories for any of the characters. However in Chronicle strong personalities are shown, and the back story of the main character, Andrew, is sentimental and very fitting. The 3 teenage boys act as any other teenager would if they'd developed super powers, which gives a huge sense of realism to the film , something that is rarely shown in other superhero films. Theirs no cheesy looks at the camera neither any corny catch-phrases, just a realistic depiction of what boys of their age would actually do, which of course is go to the local shop and mess with peoples heads! But behind the fun of the film theirs the sinister yet sentimental back story to Andrew. This back story, which is told throughout the film, makes the crossover from the upbeat banter of the 1st half of the film to the sinister 2nd half, fluent and believable.

 The whole film is also shot only using handheld cameras, which at points is a bit ridiculous but is mostly very affective. The aspect of super powers in this film is obviously a huge one but in more ways than one, often the telekinisis power of the boys is used to manoeuvre to camera to show us different shots from different angles, which was used to great effect. However their were other excuses to 'keep rolling' which weren't so good, for example a girl was shooting a video for her blog for the entire length of the film, which I thought was slightly odd and unrealistic, I think they could've shown the girl perspective much more effectively. This however is my only negative point about the film as I thought on the whole it was much more engaging than originally expected, this film has come out from pretty much nowhere and sprung a sigh of relief upon the film industry showing you can compete against D.C and Marvel, and win.

 * * * *

 Calum Russell

Super 8 review

Super 8- 'Steven Spielberg' that name alone can determine what film , 'film goers' go to watch in the summer. Although this was only produced by spielberg his print is well and truly made on this film... And not a good print. Some of Spielberg's classics personally include ; jaws, Jurassic park and his very first picture duel. I wasn't really touched by spielberg s magic through e.t, as I thought it was simply silly and was playing on the silly alien theme for too long. Unfortunately e.t is the template for jj abrams homage to spielberg. The big theme of the alien, it was all about the kids being faced with something so much bigger and greater than they could understand, and this theme played out brilliantly thought the 1st 45 minutes of the film where a jaws like aspect was taken into the film where you don't see the monster. Then when it comes to the scene where the boy and girl are face to face with the creature in his underground lair I turned off. The classic Spielberg silliness returned, when the boy speaks to the monster. I had a great imagination of what the monster might look like before I saw it, but when I did I looked more like a transformer and the 'sympathetic dialogue scene' to follow was cringe. The fact that a gargantuan monster would listen to a young boy saying were your friends is totally preposterous, but I see what abram s was trying to do. To conclude I would say I was disappointed with this film I mildly enjoyed it because of the 'childhood adventure' aspect but apart from this I felt myself cringing uncontrollably at the end. If you want to see a nostalgic film about childhood adventures give this a watch if your looking for a sympathetic deep and heartfelt monster film watch gareth edwards terrific monsters.

The artist review

Hello,


Silent films are obviously by far a thing of the past and with the dawn of new 21st century technologies, like 3-d and imax, you would think the format would never creep back onto the silver screen again. Until now. The artist has shoveled past the half hearted 3-d action and animation flicks that have flooded the autumn/winter box office and is now the 'talk of the town'. 'For how could a black and white silent film be any better than a film in colour and shot in SPECTACULAR 3-D!!!' Easily! And here's why...

Film making today isn't what is used to be, today, production teams are littered with high tech equipment (like 3-D camera's!) That for some reason, (needed or not) they think is a necessity in the film. But what's to say we can't go back to old roots like the artist has done? Simply because companies don't want to lose money, that's why the artist is such a big risk. But the risk has defiantly paid off as new films made with new technology are being overlooked as this new film with old technology is stealing the limelight and its such a nice sight to see. As of course the artist is one of the best films I've seen for a while. Its such a breath of fresh air to see such a film which along with a heart warming story line delivers great acting performances around the board especially from Jean Dujardin (and of course Uggie the dog!) But the aspect I really loved about this film was the screen play and the overall style in which this film was shot. I especially loved the opening sequence in which ( however corny it may sound) I really felt as if I was actually in a theatre of the time with the band playing live in front of me. By seeing this scene at the start where 'George Valentin' is happy and charismatic, it means that we can really relate to the character throughout the film going with him though his highs and lows .

Overall I think this film was beautiful, a real unlikely masterpiece for a film of the 21st century. One that will always stand the test of time and one that should defiantly win the awards for best film and of course to Michel Hazanavicius for best director. They most certainly do not make them like they used to!...

Calum.R