Mark's Review: This Is England

Alright, honestly... I could review this movie in four words:

SEE... THIS... MOVIE...NOW!

Powerful, great acting, intriguing plot, beautifully shot. I added this to my quene after hearing Matty and Adam raving about it on Filmspotting, and now having seen it, I understand why. This movie was just amazing.

Following a young boy who's father died as he becomes part of a skin-head gang. Now I know what you're thinking... skin-heads?! And that's the weird thing, you see these guys as good hearted people (at times, and by no means am i suggesting skin-heads are good people!) I think director Shane Meadows just completely hit the mark with this film. It's difficult to explain because essentially it is about this young boy who is taken in by this group, and the effect it has on him etc. but it's less about what they believe and more just how they treat the boy.

Really, just see it, you'll understand what I'm talking about. This got a lot of praise at Sundance, and the boy Sean won best new comer for it, and absolutely deserved it. Honestly the whole cast does a bang up job, and this movie's the dog's bollucks (that means good).

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Mark's Review: The Warriors

The year is 1979, all the gangs of New York, no not THOSE gang’s of New York, have gathered 9 ambassadors to meet as Cyrus delivers his message that New York is theirs, they just have to unify. Sure enough, SOMEONE has to ruin it… by shooting Cyrus. The Rogues did it (not a spoiler) but the Warriors get pinned (also, not a spoiler)… that was literally all I knew about this movie going into it.

The main gang which Cyrus belonged to, The Riffs, send out a message via the chief from Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego, who was moonlighting as a DJ at the time, that the Warriors are wanted dead or alive. Now the Warriors are trapped in the city, many much miles away from their home (Coney Island) with every gang looking for them.

Well, the movie basically follows these guys as they try to high-tail it back to CI and run into different problems being it the Baseball Furies, The Orphans, or the Cops. While the writing is dry, and the acting is…interesting, the movie charmed me. Swan (leader of the Warriors) has this dry DRY acting which actually works perfectly. Never really showing emotion, and personifying “strong silent type”.

I’ve heard rumors of a remake… which… makes me nervous. I kept thinking, I’d like to see what could be done with better writing, and maybe just better effects. But if they try to modernize it and set it in the present… it will fail…badly. Part of the awesome of this movie is the stylization of the time it all takes place, and how NYC is shown as gritty and like a war ground just for these gangs.

Anyway, definitely check it out.

Mark Reviews: Funny Games

So with the Remake of 1997's German film Funny Games, I decided to take a look at the original.  Now supposedly Michael Haneke (director of both the original and the remake) has been incredibly detail oriented about this remake of his own movie.

Regardless... this movie was incredibly disturbing, but amazing... like... REALLY AMAZING.  If you don't know the story, basically this affluent family goes up to their summer lake house.  The wife is interrupted in the kitchen by a knock at the door.  From there two young men enter the house being incredibly polite.

However, they are looking to play a set of sadistic games:

"let's make a bet... you bet that by 9am tomorrow, you'll be alive, and we bet you won't."

With a solid, yet disturbing plot, decent acting, and beautiful filming... this movie easily jumped to my favorites list.  My only thing is the acting was a bit weak, so I'm looking forward to seeing Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Michael Pitt in the roles.  I will say that the boy who played Peter (Michael Pitt's character) was fantastic in this movie!!

Anyway, if you're worried about violence, don't, there's really not much seen... but yes... you hear stuff and it gets a little disturbing... but still... i highly recommend the movie!!

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Mark's Review: Hard Candy

Ok, so... going into this film, I had zero idea what it was about. I knew Ellen Page was in it, and had heard it was good... but yeah, no clue what it was about.

That being said when it began with a close-up on an on-line conversation that would make Chris Hansen blush... I got worried.

Like I said, I didn't know what Hard Candy was about, but I knew Ellen Page looked to be like... 14 in it... so naturally... this conversation worried me immediately. So sure enough the two conversing parties decide to meet in real life, at a public coffee shop... they eat some pastries, they chat about music, books etc... and then Geoff (Patrick Wilson), the 35 year old photographer who has been chatting up this 14 year old Hayley (Ellen Page) discusses a bootleg copy of a song by Goldfrapp that Hayley has to hear, but "it'd be weird for you to come back to my place".... so naturally what's the next thing that happens? Yeah... they do...

AND THEN THE MOVIE EXPLODES.... I can't even go into it, but this movie is phenomenal. It's a little difficult to watch because of subject matter, but the acting is outstanding. I don't know if Ellen got an Oscar Nod for this film, but she sure deserved one. It's a heavy movie, that you really can't turn away from... it requires your attention. It's a strong STRONG story line, that gets pushed along by clever cinematography, and great acting by both characters. The movie takes place pretty much entirely at Geoff's house, and only features the two actors, except for a quick cameo from Sandra Oh of Sideways... yeah... I'll credit her with that, and not her subpar tv show which hurts my soul. :)

see this movie!

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WaxIdiotical's Video Review: There Will Be Blood

Mark - Outstanding
Kyp - Outstanding

...have you noticed we tend to go see movies that we know will be awesome.

WaxIdiotical's Video Review: There Will Be Blood from Mark Marshall on Vimeo.