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Wednesday, 30 December 2009

Monty Python's "Upper Class Twit of the Year" Scene

From Monty Python's "And Now For Something Completely Different" -because it made me cry with laughter.




CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Tuesday, 29 December 2009

Movie Review - Sherlock Holmes (2009)

It seems that just about everything is getting a re-envisaging at the moment, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective is the latest. Played by Robert Downey Jr., this Sherlock Holmes is as much into martial arts as deductive reasoning, and frankly something of a mess without the steadying influence of his long-time friend, Dr John Watson (Jude Law). One thing I liked about this film was that Watson was a fully developed and thoroughly capable character in his own right, not the bumbling side-kick that so many films and TV series have portrayed him as. In fact his only real failing is his inability not to get drawn into the insane situation that Holmes constantly finds himself in.

During an opening scene which seems to be the complete solution of a crime resulting in the imprisonment of Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong), we see Holmes' complete disregard for convention but strong sense of justice. Watson's tendency to get annoyed with him but their amazing ability to work together are also very much in evidence. This is supposed to be the culmination of their last case together - Watson is getting married to Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly) and moving to more prestigious accommodation, while Holmes... is busy getting himself further into a dark brodding depression caused by boredom, lack of challenge, lack of social interaction and a strange obsession with performing experiments on Watson's dog and trapped flies. Then comes an unusual request - Lord Blackwood asks to see him as a dying man's last wish. His words to Holmes are even stranger, and events that follow are more surreal still - not to say worrying.

Amidst the strangeness and dark forces mobilising, Holmes is visited by the one woman he's ever truly loved - renowned crook Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams). She comes to him with a job and the suggestion of a promise of love... the two play cat and mouse around the wider issues of the plot. Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan) attempts to keep Holmes in check without diminishing the amazing and unpredictable talents of the detective. Other characters include Sir Thomas (James Fox). Ambassador Standish (William Hope), Constable Clark (William Houston) and "Dredger" (Robert Maillet).

There storyline is good, keeping you guessing most of the time and having a suitably ingenious solution. In general I like what's been done with the characters, and there's certainly lots of action and a fair smattering of humour to go along with the sleuthing. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law make a great on-screen combination, with plenty of sparky chemistry whether they're on good terms at the time or not. Rachel McAdams is fine as Irene Adler, and the rest of the cast are good. Surprisingly, as I've always liked his performances in other films, I found Mark Strong to be the weak link in the acting department - I don't think the severe haircut helped him, it was hard to take him seriously! To me the main evil dude was absent for too much of the movie (even given that he was supposed to be dead for quite a bit of it).

Victorian London has been lovingly recreated with loads of CGI, which looks brilliant most of the time. In the final cliff-hanger scenes though (where the cliff is replaced with scaffolding works), I found that the realism was lost quite badly. There was just about enough tension and action to overcome this, but it was still noticeable.

The only thing that really stopped me from loving this film was the tendency of the direction *Guy Ritchie) to become obsessed with violence. For me there wasn't quite enough humour in this film considering the strength of the characters, and if the emphasis on violence had been diverted to more comedic scenes, I'd have liked the 2009 rendition of Sherlock Holmes even more. I still really enjoyed it, but just thought that it could have been even better.

Finally, the music - even by Hans Zimmer's implausibly high standards, the music score for Sherlock Holmes 2009 was fantastic. The mood and style of the music constantly changed, but not only was it always superb, it also complemented whatever was happening in the movie absolutely perfectly.

Overall Sherlock Holmes was a very enjoyable film, and the new twist on the characters has worked very well.


Other Information

Runtime: 128 minutes
Rated 12A (UK), PG-13 (USA) for intense sequences of violence and action, some startling images and a scene of suggestive material.

See also: Sherlock Holmes - The Definitive Collection review

Related Links


Robert Downey Jr.:
- Iron Man
- Chances Are
- Only You

Jude Law:
- Cold Mountain



CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Saturday, 26 December 2009

Sherlock Holmes

Will post a full review within the next couple of days, but my immediate impression after seeing one of the year's most hotly anticipated movies is:

It was good... but it could have been even better. The storyline was pretty good, the internal logic didn't always hold up but it kept my interest. Hans Zimmer's music score was absolutely brilliant. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law were very good in their roles, Rachel McAdams was fine, Mark Strong didn't get as much ascreen time as I'd have liked - and frankly didn't make as good a bad guy here as I'd expected. Lots of action and some humour among the deductive reasonings, though it certainly had more scope for being funny.

Enjoyable, but maybe not quite as good as the hype made out it would be. Then again... when is the hype ever lived up to by reality?

If you like Robert Downey Jr., you'll definitely enjoy Sherlock Holmes.


Related Links:

Sherlock Holmes Premiere Report

See also: Sherlock Holmes - The Definitive Collection review


CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Robin Hood - 2010!

Hang on - can we possibly need another Robin Hood movie?!?!

Well... directed by Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Matthew Macfadyen - also featuring William Hurt and Max von Syndow... yeah, I think we can live with a version like that!

My only slight doubt is the casting of Cate Blanchet as Maid Marion - she's a fine actress but somehow I just can't quite imagine her in that role.


CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Monday, 21 December 2009

Sherlock Holmes Premiere Report

Our content partners ScreenRush talk to Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Mark Strong and Rachel McAdams about reimagining the legend and the meaning of the word "bromance"...


More about this movie

See also: Sherlock Holmes - The Definitive Collection review




CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Sunday, 20 December 2009

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

I can't remember if I've seen this before, but I was astounded by the quality of the special effects in such an old film when I saw it recently. Starring Conrad Veidt as Jaffar, and evil sorcerer, who claims a Princess (played by June Duprez) as his price when he brings a magical flying mechanical horse for the Sultan. Only Abu (played by Sabu) and Ahmad (John Justin) can stop Jaffar, aided somewhat by a Djinn (played with enormous relish by Rex Ingram).

Typical of the era, it contains a slightly overbearing music score and
features several key cast members who look and sound nothing like the nationality they're supposed to be, but it's all enormous fun and is a great visual spectacle even today.

CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Friday, 18 December 2009

Iron Man 2 Trailer

(I know the preview image makes it look like this will be awful quality, but it's actually high quality!)



CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Moonlight Sonata (1937)

Saw this thirties movie tonight, it's a bit of a musical oddity really - Ignacy Jan Paderewski stars as himself, a great piano player and composer. It starts off with a lengthy piano recital and eventually has the Polish piano player looking back at an event in his past, with a slightly unnecessary love story revolving around the eponymous Beethoven piece. Unfortunately the print I saw (the 1995 VHS version) wasn't very good and crucially the sound quality suffered, but it was still a rather enjoyable film.



CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Thursday, 17 December 2009

Panic Attack!



This is the movie that's got everyone talking - and earned Uruguayan producer Fede Alvarez a $30m contract in Hollywood to create a feature-length version of his movie.


CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

St Trinians 2 Trailer

The 2007 St Trinian's movie was a lot of fun, so this may just be worth a look...




CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Monday, 14 December 2009

Interviews - The Avatar Cast and Crew

James Cameron, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang talk about the arduous process of making this game-changing sci-fi epic...

More about this movie
CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Thursday, 10 December 2009

Aspiring Filmmakers Can Get Big Break With Peter Jackson

Fancy yourself as a film director?


New Zealand will be the star of a new project that offers aspiring filmmakers the chance to get their work in front of Academy Award™-winning director Peter Jackson. The short film competition, 100% Pure New Zealand Presents Your Big Break, will give the top five entrants time working with the Academy Award-winning team responsible for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The Your Big Break finalists will shoot and direct their own short films on location in New Zealand, with the assistance of The Lord of the Rings executive producer Barrie Osborne and world-class post-production facility Park Road Post. The five finalists will then have their completed films personally viewed and judged by Peter Jackson.

Those interested should check out http://www.your-big-break.com to get advice and insights from Peter Jackson and Barrie Osborne, and download the competition brief. Submissions and voting open today.

To enter the first round of the competition, aspiring directors must submit a screenplay and any supporting content they think will help their selection for the New Zealand shoot. The screenplay must be for a three-minute short film that captures the spirit of New Zealand. Members of the public can vote for the “People’s Choice” finalist – and four further finalists will be chosen by an expert panel including Barrie Osborne.

Useful links:

Your Big Break website: http://www.your-big-break.com

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-Big-Break/172160679295

On Twitter: http://twitter.com/YourBigBreakNZ

For inspiration: http://www.newzealand.com



CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Thursday, 3 December 2009

Movie Review - Born of Hope

An indie film that's been hotly awaited for quite some time now, Born of Hope is the story of Arathorn, father of Aragorn. The latest fan-made Lord of the Rings movies takes a character that is often mentioned as father to one of the most important characters in LotR, but never actually seen or heard about much.

With a very limited budget, Kate Madison and crew have produced a really good little film here. Some people have complained that it lacks the sweeping panoramic shots of mountains etc that were in both the Peter Jackson trilogy and The Hunt for Gollum, but such complaints are really missing the point of this film. It homes in on a few characters and shows their struggles against the rising tides of orcs coming out of Dol Guldor as Sauron begins to hunt for both the Ring of Power and the last remaining Heir of Isildur. Though much is explained in the story and there is considerable voiceover narration (thankfully both voiced very well and written in a very Tolkienesque manner), it does help to have some knowledge of the history of Middle Earth. (Fortunately for me I'm a bit of an anorak in that regard...)

The key cast members are Christopher Dane (Arathorn), Beth Aynsley (Gilraen), Kate Madison (Elgarain), Danny George (Dirhaborn), Andrew McDonald (Dirhael), Phillipa Hammond (Ivorwen), Iain Marshall (Arador) and Howard Corlett (Halbaron). Since few or none of the character names will be familiar to you, here's the basic plot:

Gilraen and her parents, Dirhael and Ivorwen, are fleeing - to where they do not yet know - as their village has been destroyed by marauding orcs. Set upon by a band of the foul creatures and seemingly lost, their salvation comes in the form of Arathorn and his rangers. In time Arathorn and Gilraen fall in love, but this is complicated by resistance to the idea from Dirhael, Gilraen's father - this is not because of any particular dislike of Arathorn, but knowledge of the dreadful legacy of his being an heir of Isildur. Further complicating matters are Elgarain's love for Arathorn, and Dihaborn's equally unrequited love for Elgarain. Then of course there's the big bad guy Sauron, unseen in this movie but in some ways even more menacing because of it...

Though that might all sound rather confusing, two things should be pointed out - it doesn't dissolve into a mushy love story (for a LotR film, that would just be wrong... even Peter Jackson's movies suffered from his obsession with Liv Tyler [understandable though that may be]). Secondly Born of Hope probably benefits from having a cast of characters we haven't seen on-screen before - in Born of Hope you couldn't help but compare Gandalf and Aragorn with the ones we'd come to know in the form of Ian McKellan and Viggo Mortensen.

The acting is very good throughout, and while it may not have some of the impressive visuals of Born of Hope, the storyline is much stronger. There's plenty going on, good character development and it feels like a valuable addition to Middle Earth's story. The English (and Welsh, I think) countryside is used to great effect and both the sets and costumes lend to the atmosphere. There's one short bit of CGI (troll attack!) which is well handled - to me the film certainly doesn't lose anything from not having much in the way of special effects. The music is nice too, nicely atmospheric but completely different to the score from the trilogy. The battle scenes are well choreographed, though the first ambush scene wasn't entirely convincing.

The only area in which Born of Hope did fall down a little was in its pacing. At 68 minutes long it just seemed to slow down too much in a couple of scenes. Overall though I was very impressed with Born of Hope - the writing and acting were both strong, and it makes for a pretty compelling movie. All Lord of the Rings fans are going to enjoy this - and for the record, though I enjoyed The Hunt for Gollum, I definitely felt that this was the superior film.

Born of Hope is available as a free online movie only. To watch the movie or find out more about the story / cast / production etc, visit the official website:

http://www.bornofhope.com/


Related Links

Born of Hope Trailer
Write-up and review of Halifirien
Interview with Tom and Patrick Robinson (Halifirien)

DVD Review - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (4 Disc Set)
DVD Review - Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2-Disc Extended Edition)
Movie Review - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Trailer for Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Trailer for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King





CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog

Tuesday, 1 December 2009

Born of Hope - Now Available to watch online!

Have just watched Born of Hope - very good story, good music, even some good CGI. It's a little slow at times - probably due to the run-time being extended quite a bit beyond what was originally intended - but definitely well worth a look for Lord of the Rings fans.

Watch Born of Hope



CaptainD - Movie Reviews Blog


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