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Wednesday 25 January 2012

Review: Coriolanus

What's better than beautiful, flowing, passionate language? I'm not simply posing this as a cliche, the kind people use to express that they like something a lot, because to me there really is nothing better. Better than well choreographed dance or bombastic explosions, a new iPhone or the smell of coffee brewing. Hearing or reading some spectacular wordsmanship is to me utter bliss. The eternal master of speech is of course Shakespeare. From the romantic soliloquy's of Romeo to the furious posturing of Othello, it's wonderful to hear. Being long gone however, it's rare we get to hear anything new from the long departed bard and so instead what we get are new interpretations of Romeo & Juliet where Juliet is a cheerleader for 'The Chi-Town Crickets', the rival team of Romeo's 'The Crunk Tigers', but love finds a way. Ralph Fiennes has decided to ditch this trend for his directorial debut, instead hoping to revitalize a lost and disliked work. Forgotten gem or buried for a reason? 
Ralph Finnes is Cauis Martius Coriolanus, a hero of Rome who, with his unrelenting fury and hatred of most people, has lead many unlikely victories. The people of Rome can't however see past his douchebaggery and get pretty sick of his very unsociable attitude and decide he should be banished for no reason other than he's been a bit rude to them. Naturally the banished Coriolanus is more than a bit miffed at his expulsion from the city he has so long protected and he decides to do something quite unthinkable. For the most part it's a predictable Shakesperarian tragedy with plenty of opportunities for larger than life recitals and big booming voices. Where it really stands out is where the blame is laid. The lesson of this film is more that the Government is corrupt and can make the gullible poverty stricken think whatever they like instead of blaming the drama on one person or one idea we instead blame a largely faceless mass of angry Romans. Also it's not like Coriolanus is really a winning protagonist. He isn't exactly a nice guy and he never tries to hide that fact. We sympathize when he is thrown out of town but in a way completely understand why he was. It's not as clear cut a tale of good and evil which is very much it's strength. 


Performances in a Shakespeare play go one of three ways; stilted readings from people who don't quite get it, over-the-top up and down recitals where people do funny faces never allowing it to feel natural or the classic thespian who gets all expressive with the anger and equally can make you forget they are even speaking in olde English. Thankfully for the most part it's the latter. Ralph is brilliant to watch as he breaks down and shouts at everyone and by the end I couldn't help but feel bad for him. Gerald Butler gives a performance not all too different from his 300 offering which works for the war hungry Tullus. Vanessa Redgrave does a great job as the Lady Macbeth style projecting over achiever, however she did do the overlong Shakespeare laugh (you know the one I mean). They were backed up admirably by Brain Cox and the two tribunal mischief makers James Nesbitt and Paul Jesson. 


It also looks pretty great. They've gone for the modern up close shaky-cam style of film-making and for the most part it works, expertly feeling controlled and yet confused. They've brought the tale into the modern day which is handled well in the case of battles and environment but feels a bit heavy handed in the case of fake news readings from John Snow and others. That being said it makes the story very easy to follow and those of you worried about getting lost in the language shouldn't shy away. The context makes it much easier to decipher some of the more complex moments. However, if you are like the chavy kids in the back of the cinema, no this isn't an Afghan War movie with lots of blood, men being 'men' and pointless violence. 


For those dead set against Shakespeare this was always going to be a hard sell but trust me, if you can break through the language there really isn't much like a good Shakespeare yarn and this is definitely that. It's bold and angry and really worth your time. More than anything though it's a chance to see a classic work you probably haven't even heard of done right. For me just that was enough to make this a must see.



JO

Sunday 15 January 2012

Review: War Horse

Horses are awesome. I mean awesome in the traditional sense of awe-inspiring. If you've ever stood next to a really massive horse you'll know what I mean. Through the ages I would say it's pretty clear everyone would agree with that statement. They are the animal of choice for any manual labor we are too lazy or weak to do. We don't just show out appreciation by giving them apples and sugar cubes though, we also make horse related media that makes everyone cry once every 3 years. This time round it falls to the duel talents of Steven Spielberg and Michael Morpurgo to show their love of horses. Is it self-gratifying nonsense or a horse-based wonder? 
A drunkard of a Dad (Peter Mullan) who has just moved onto some new but pretty rubbish farming land with his son and wife is off to the local animal auction to get a big sturdy plowing horse. However when he gets there he spies a horse that he has a good feeling about. Despite the strong discouragement from his surrounding pals, he enters a bidding war with the local Richie Rich (David Thewlis) and ends up spending far too much on a horse that doesn't really fit his needs. When he takes the horse home his wife (Emily Watson) isn't best pleased on the other hand his son (newbie Jeremy Irvine) is over the moon and takes it upon himself to raise the horse into the ultimate plow-tugging machine. One or two horse montages later, War is declared and the horse is sold to a high ranking general (Tom Hiddleston) what follows is a Black Beauty style game of hot-potato-horse as he is passed from owner to owner and has plenty of adventures and life lessons along the way. It's a set-up that allows for lots of different situations, characters and scenes that mean you are never even given a chance to get bored but conversely never really given much of an insight into any of the characters. Having said that they do a decent job of cramming lots of information into very short scenes but never making it feel like Inception levels of story cramming. 

There are some surprisingly obnoxious elements to War Horse. This may sound silly but the horse who plays the titular protagonist is a really hammy actor. I know that it's impressive they got a horse to do all the stuff that it indeed achieved but in a film that is so serious and hard-hitting in some places, to have the kind of ridiculous over-the-top animal acting better suited to a talking animal film like Babe completely breaks the reality they create making some of the more emotional scenes come across quite comically. If you were reading the book any of the very unrealistic things the horse did you could style out in your head and as for the stage play, well theatre can be taken much less literally so you can have stranger elements and it won't come across as stupidly. These unreal moments weren't only attached to the animals though. The ending with it's saccharine skylike clearly lifted directly out of the play looked impressively ridiculous. 

Talking of the more ridiculous and obvious elements of the film inevitably leads to the terribly over-the-top score from John Williams. It tells us to feel sad, happy and triumphant never allowing the film to have it's subtler moments as they must always be soaked up in obvious musical emotions that, much like the animals, don't want the film to be quietly emotional but clearly stated at all times. 
Expectations are important if you plan to see this film. It's charming and occasionally epic and might just squeeze a few tears out of you (or like the girl sitting across from me in the cinema make you sob in a hilarious fashion). It's got something for everyone meaning you'll certainly enjoy it and it's in no way hard work. It will absorb you and your time will be well spent. All that being said it's intensely cliche ridden, exceedingly obvious and you have probably seen a film just like this one at least 3 times before. However I can't deny that I really enjoyed myself and got everything I expected to get out of this film. Like Mission Impossible 4, it meets expectations and does what it needs to do whilst being pretty epic and cool about it, however if you are looking for Schindler's List meets E.T. meets Saving Private Ryan, you best keep searching. 

JO

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Review: Mission: Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol

Mission Impossible is a series that continually receives spectacular action directors. From The Untouchables' Brain De Palma to the revolutionary John Woo, it always gets the best. But to me that's always felt like a bad point. It's a series that runs off the trends and talents of other films and adapts itself to suit the current market. The perfect studio money maker that you can always rely on for dramatic set-pieces and dumb fun, but never for new ideas or innovation. But this time around the godfather of American animation has been given the reins for his first live-action directing job. Is this a chance to finally see the style and charm of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles come into reality or just another derivative action flick.
We open with a rooftop chase, jump of a building and a deadly hug followed by an orchestrated prison riot to break out our protagonist Ethan Hunt. Then a montage of whats to come; nuclear codes, undercover break-ins and magnetic floating. The plot is not really that different from the previous three M:I films. Something crazy happens and everyone blames Ethan, the only difference this time is that the IMF are  also blamed and are forced to completely liquidate, disappear like a ghost, like a ghost protocol some would say.  This means that Ethan's team are on their own which makes this mission even more impossible than the last three. It's a decent set-up that makes the stunts that follow seem somewhat riskier than they have before, the clear highlight being Ethan climbing up the Burj Khalifa almost unassisted. 

Asides from the big and bold stunts their are also some fantastic quieter moments like the Kremlin break-in where an iPad is used to mimic a hallway and fool a guard. It's a smart scene but what really sells it is the small level of believability. Clearly Apple signed a very big deal with Paramount but thankfully it works for the film rather than just looking like tacky piece of product placement. 

On the side of performances it's nothing spectacular. They all do their job and say what they need to in the right way. Tom Cruise is appropriately moody and Simon Pegg plays the comedy role where every joke is either a complete miss or just brilliantly predictable. Jeremy Renner is probably the best of it all. When he is introduced as the straight-man to Pegg's 'funny-guy' it is occasionally charming and it all seems to come quite naturally to him. The real disappointment is no personable villain like the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the third film. The villain we get instead is an almost voiceless politician. In fact he is so bland that they could have changed the actor playing him on four different occasions and I would have been none the wiser. Instead of a bad guy we get a Russian police man who believes that Ethan is a terrorist and always appears just in time to cause some trouble. It's a role that could have been made more of as the character completely makes the ending.

The story attempts to exist over the explosions and violence but never really gets further than just making sure you know who to root for and who to doubt. For any fans of previous films there is some attempt to link back to the third but it seems like an after thought that never really matters. Which is a real shame because what made Brad  Bird's previous films so brilliant were the human aspects. However, where Brad Bird really shines through in in the sheer joyful abandon it dances around. It is an incredibly fun film that put a smile on my face throughout. 

There are many things in this film that could have been made more of and that's what this film really is through and through. It's perfectly adequate in every way and is incredibly entertaining throughout but it really stops there. You will think fondly of some of the set-pieces but forget about it pretty soon. I saw it yesterday and am already struggling to recall much more than a strong feeling of vertigo. 


JO

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Review: The Artist

Back in May of 2011, for reasons that are too silly to go into here, I found myself watching BBC News 24 at 4am in the morning. They were running a feature on the Cannes Film Festival and focussed on a film that was generating quite the buzz, a film adored and praised by critics and public alike. A film from a little known French director whose surname I’m still unsure how to pronounce, that was set in the golden age of Hollywood, (Or HollywoodLand as it was then known) complemented throughout by an orchestral score, with authentic silent movie intertitles and devoid of dialogue. In other words a classic silent film, in other other words The Artist. 
Ever since then I have been giddy with excitement to see The Artist and yesterday I was finally able to and happily I was entirely justified in my excitement.  For fans of silent cinema like myself The Artist was never going to be a tough sell. Its promise of a 4:3 aspect ratio, black and white cinematography, classic old cars and “mugging to camera” is enough to get most chomping at the bit. The Artist celebrates a more simplistic way of both film making and storytelling; contemporary cinema can be very busy boasting layer upon layer of noise, explosions and nonsense. The Artist strips all that back and takes us back to a more simplistic style of film making and in this bustling film environment The Artist has almost a cleansing effect offering not only a flawless recreation of late 20’s Hollywood but also a genuinely glorious, heartfelt piece of joyous cinematic perfection. 


Hollywood circa 1927 is beautifully recreated with every single detail, lovingly and painstakingly presented to such an extent that apart from a few recognisable actors The Artist could seriously be sold as a restoration of a lost silent classic. So immediate is this effect that it feels like the kind of film you’ve heard so much about but are yet to watch. The story it tells is simple enough a well known silent star George Valentin gives a break to a young stalwart dancer called Peppy Miller whose star rises and rises as George’s sadly wanes. Along with the classic story and splendid cinematography the strength of The Artist lies in the sublime performances of the actors, seamlessly channelling all the greats of the silent age and never once slipping into parody, always paying respectful homage to a much missed way of performing.  John Goodman is a perfect fit for silent cinema; his over the top facial gymnastics portray his every changing emotion with such ease and charm. Same goes tenfold for Jean Dujardin, who gives an absolutely stellar performance sitting somewhere between Rudolph Valentino and Buster Keaton he effortlessly glides and flits throughout the story showing more progression, versatility and talent than most actors can with the aid of reams of dialogue. But the real star of the film is George’s trusty canine companion who ,if they did Oscars for animals, would be a shoe-in. The erstwhile pooch is a pleasure to watch and provokes more “awws” in a film than I have heard in quite some time. All of this makes The Artist a beautiful and impeccable homage to the glory days of HollywoodLand. 




Echoes of Sunset Boulevard, Singin’ in the Rain, All About Eve and A Star is Born are inescapable but The Artist is a truly unique creation. It manages to take a story that we’ve seen a thousand times before and deliver it in an unforgettable way. That being said The Artist is not a flawless film, the classic cinema it recreates frequently suffered from having incredibly long intertitles. Many is the time in a Fritz Lang or D.W.Griffith film that I am able to read an intertitle about 3 times before the director deems it time to return to the action The Artist suffers from a polar opposite affliction, flicking its intertitles quickly across the screen barely giving you time to take it in. But once you accept that we are supposed to be faster readers nowadays you get used to it and the action and performance is so crystal clear that you don’t need to take in every nuance of the sparse dialogue to understand what’s going on. At times the performances can be a bit heavy handed and hammed up but that is all part and parcel of the charm and the cinema it imitates.  


What with The Artist being a classic silent film done in 2011 it is able to experiment and play with certain modern elements. One particular sequence that plays around with sound effects is a stand out moment of modern influence in a classic genre; it makes the scene all the more powerful because as well as showing us the exciting contemporary things that can be done to highlight elements of the story it also serves as a perfectly simple exploration of George’s feelings at the time and sets us up for things that occur later on in the story. Poignant moments in the film are played out in an almost deafening silence from moments of great elation to moments of great despair, this silence invites us as an audience to add our own thoughts and dialogue to what we see before us making us root harder for the protagonists. 


Throughout I couldn’t escape one thought: It's so nice that in an age of films having big budgets, even bigger CGI, 3D, models and wrestlers as actors and countless remakes and heartless films that The Artist can effortlessly swoop in and show us that sometimes it all we need to do is pare back, get rid of extraneous detail and focus on the story and the characters.  The Artist is an absolute joy to behold and one of the most truly feel-good films I have seen in a long time. It provides us the logical conclusion to the recent resurgence in cinema’s fondness and appreciation of its roots and is all the better for being done so damn well.  Anyone who leaves the cinema after seeing it without the inkling of a grin on their face may well be a cyborg. Therefore I implore you, even if the idea of silent cinema scares you, to check this film out. 



SO



Thursday 5 January 2012

Joe's Film Of 2011

My Film Of 2011
We Need To Talk About Kevin
Films aren't just about story, visual spectacle or cultural impact, that's what we have paintings, sculptures and novels for. Film is a medium with everything and when you have everything you have to work extremely hard to make each individual element work. We Need To Talk About Kevin achieved this complicated balancing act and made it seem blissfully simple and yet wonderfully deep and complex. Story and the raw nature of Kill List was brutally impressive, the sound design and artistic beauty of Melancholia was shockingly moving and the pure nostalgic glee of Midnight in Paris was charming excellence. But We Need To Talk About Kevin took all of my senses to a truly amazing place that very few  films have matched (two that have come close came out this year, seriously, 2011, hell of a year). It also is probably the only film I have seen that I can honestly say didn't try to beat the book but instead made itself something the book could never have been. I'm not writing off the novel, in fact this film (of course) could not have been achieved without it. Each element, including the novel, is integral and astounding. 

The Best Of The Rest
The Tree of Life
Beautiful and profoundly moving
Kill List
A film I will honestly never forget
Drive
More than simply stylish but on the other hand, incredibly stylish
Midnight in Paris
Beyond entertaining and hilarious with a message that actually meant something 
Melancholia
Familiar but (like all Trier films) like nothing I've ever seen
Biutiful
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, master of the ensemble spider-web proves he can control just one man. 
(UK release 28th January 2011 so it counts!)

Honorable Mentions
Post Mortem.................................................................................................................................................True Grit
Take Shelter........................................................................................Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
The Skin I Live In......................................................................................................................................127 Hours
Source Code........................................................................................................................................Meek's Cutoff
Crazy Stupid Love............................................................................................................................................Senna
Troll Hunter.............................................................................................................................................Project Nim
Rango..............................................................................................................................................................Arriety

Most Annoyed I Missed
A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas
I missed alot of films this year (Sleeping Beauty, 50/50, Weekend, Tyrannosaur) but I can honestly say that A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas is the only film I am actually upset about missing. Yes all those others film will probably be better but their is not one of them I feel won't be just as good on Blu-Ray, on my comfy sofa and not in a giant cinema screen. I hate 3D but I feel like this film is 2011's Jackass 3D and we all know how awesome that was. And before you scroll back up to re-read the last part of this, in which I attempted to be a film scholar, this is still me. Yes, I love stoner comedies, sue me. 

Honorable Mentions
I am not joking, this is the only one.

Most Anticipated of 2012
Moonrise Kingdom
Look at him, how could I not be excited!
I can't think of one Wes Anderson film I haven't loved. Two of his films I would put in my top 50 films of all time and he has such a unique style that can't be matched. Sure we will finally get to see The Avengers after years of speculation and yes we are going to get a new Alien movie that will probably be brilliant but alas you can't beat Harvey Keitel and Roman Coppola (writer of second best Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited) no matter how hard you try.

Honorable Mentions
Of course I am excited about the Films Sam has already mentioned especially The Dark Knight Rises these are some of the others.
-The Hobbit, geeky excitement abound.
-Prometheus, Ridley Scott back home at last.
-Django Unchained, seeing Tarantino in Sukiyaki Western Django was a great teaser for what he own spaghetti Western at the end of 2012

Bring on 2012!

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Sam's Film Of 2011

My Film Of 2011
Kill List
Ben Wheatley’s incredible Kill List smacked me right in the heart, mind and face this year by delivering the sort of film I’d been willing Britain to produce for absolutely ages. It was smart, clever, brutal, funny, visceral and left me literally quaking in my boots come the thrilling finale. Kill List was a very special film and will be the film I most remember when looking back on 2011. Just writing about it gives me goosebumps.

Best of the Rest
Tyrannosaur
Paddy Considine’s incredible directorial debut. Powerful, brilliant and uncompromising.
Drive
Achingly cool film starring Man of 2011 Ryan “I’d definitely go gay for him” Gosling.
True Grit
The Coens make a western starring an eye patch wearing Jeff Bridges. Perfection.
Submarine
Richard Ayoade’s sublime debut feature. Oozing with style, laughs and genius; Cracking film.
Source Code
Duncan Jones’ second feature is a brainy, brilliant, blistering slice of action excellence. 

Most Annoyed I Missed
Jurassic Park Re-Release 
I’m absolutely unbearably gutted that I missed the re-release of Jurassic Park. That would’ve been amazing, seeing all those dinosaurs dino’ing about on the big screen. Seeing Newman from Seinfeld running away from that spitting dinosaur, Samuel L. Jackson smoking in high definition, Velociraptors doing their thang. Man, absolutely gutted. 

Honorable Mentions
-Blue Valentine (I do now have it on DVD so it’s not all lost) 
-The Fighter
-TT: Closer to the Edge (especially after the surprise love of Senna) 
-The Lion King re-release. 

Most Anticipated Of 2012
Next year looks set to be an absolute corker. I’m already quite excited about this time next year when I can write about how I’d hate to have Bane round for tea. So rather than have a definitve winner of this category here comes my top five, in no particular order. 
The Dark Knight Rises 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GokKUqLcvD8 need I say more
The Avengers 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zatgnqdIefs need I say more 
Shame 
Steve McQueen (not that one) Fassbender, Mulligan, hard hitting, need I say more.
The Artist 
The kind of film where I worry that they went into my brain opened the drawer marked “Awesome films I’d love to see” and made it happen.
THE MUPPETS!!! 
Seriously, it’s the flipdamn muppets!

Cinemazov's 1st Annual Film Awards Part Three

Best Re-Release
The Great White Silence/Days of Heaven 
There have been quite a few top notch re-releases this year: The Big Sleep, Les Diaboliques, Akira, Taxi Driver and some choice Ealing comedies to name but a few. However as aware as I am that these films are awesome there are only a few I enjoyed in the glorious surroundings of a cinema. Terence Malick’s sumptuously sublime Days of Heaven. A film that can be summarized in its tag line: "Your eyes... Your ears... Your senses... Will be overwhelmed." A phenomenal experience, expertly restored, it looked like a work of art on screen. Every vista, scene, set up and shred of colour snapped with love and accentuated the romantic heart of the film. Complete with a charming voice over and thrilling final act, one of Malick's finest films was not to be missed. The incredible restoration of Herbert Ponting’s seminal record of Captain Scott’s heroic journey to the south pole The Great White Silence was given a cracking new score and visually restored to its deserved glory this year by the BFI. The film oozed of atmosphere, the breathtaking experiences and views shot by Ponting were sublimally complemented by a newly commissioned score and had one of the most haunting conclusions I've ever seen to a documentary. It's also nearly 100 years old. Two absolutely thrilling re-releases that are both oh so worthy of this acclaim.

Honorable Mentions
-This year also saw a restoration of Last Year in Marienbad. Whilst the film is celebrated for its “assault on [the] ingrained assumptions of narrative film" and was personally a fine thing to behold, Mother Cinemazov didnt care for it that much citing that "I could just picture French and Saunders making fun of it" which made her giggle and splutter throughout. Seminal piece of french cinema or comedy of the year? You decide. 


Character We'd Most Like To Party With
Thor, God of Thunder
Partying with the Norse God Thor would be awesome. He can hold his drink, weald a hammer and will be so gloriously uproarious as to make you the talk of the town. Also he would be continually providing you with laughs due to the way he beautifully opines. Plus his Asgardian mates would turn up and kick that party off right. 

Honorable Mentions
-Ernest Hemingway and most of the 1920’s alumni in Midnight in Paris. They are so good at partying and having a laugh that Owen Wilson leaves his b*tch of a wife for their shenanigans. Epic.

Character We'd Least Like To Party With
Jay
There are quite a few people who I would be very keen to not attend any of my shindigs but Jay from Kill List takes the biscuit. His antics at the dinner party alone would put me off putting him on the guest list, but factor in as well his short fuse, aggressive temper, proclivity towards hammer based violence and his, how should I put it, eagerness. Also, he’d probably just sulk the whole time and yell at any Christians I invited.



Honorable Mentions
-Driver in Drive, Quiet, sombre, reflective and face smashingly violent. 
-Bobby Fischer, as he would just talk about chess, get annoyed and then get a bit anti-Semitic
-The entire cast of Snowtown, fine actors and performances all but the vast amount of violence, cursing, torture and incest would not a fine party make.  

Best Cameo
Wolverine in X-Men First Class
Make an X-Men movie without me, why I outtah!
Nothing really needs to be said about this one. If you saw the film you know how awesome it was and if you didn't, well chances are you don't really care for X-Men. Let's put it this way, I saw this in reasonably full screen and couldn't stop laughing to the point where at least seven people were giving me judging looks. I can only assume they looked away when the funniest moment in cinema happened.....Fools.

Honorable Mentions
-Scott Bakula in Source Code, A very very subtle nod in a film so transparently based on Quantum Leap. It's an impossibly easy thing to miss but that's what makes this reference so brilliantly refreshing.
-Ben Stiller in Submarine, Ben Stiller's job in regards to Submarine was to put his name on the poster so American's would go and see it. Apparently Richard 'Man to Man' Ayoade's name doesn't have the same (if any) pull in the states. It's not like Stiller didn't know this in fact he played up to this joke in many respects and his tiny cameo in Submarine is pretty silly.

Coolest Moment
Baseball on the Radio - Drive
Dozens of insanely cool things happened in films this year. From the fact to the fiction cool stuff was always down. But for pure cinematic majesty the start of Drive was the definition of cool. It introduces us the the sheer smarts and skill of the protagonist and as all the pieces come together it is as impressive and clever as it is insanely cool.

Honorable Mentions

-The King's 'Speech' - The King's Speech, Over coming demon's is one thing but empowering a nation is another.
-Passing Out in Brazil - Senna, It's kinda hard  to describe how awesome this moment was especially considering I know so little about cars but I'll try. Having never won the Brazilian Grand Prix (Senna was born in São Paulo) he was so determined to win that he broke  his car and had to complete the final laps never leaving the high gear he was in. He was so exhausted when he finally reached the finish line and won he just totally flipped out and consequently passed out in the car and had to be pulled out.

Most Shocking Moment
The World Ending - Melancholia
Apocalyptic events have been somewhat trivialized by films in the past. We gawk at the deaths of thousands of Tibetan monks in a giant tsunami instead of feeling the terror of impending global doom. That's fair enough, those films are meant to be fun and a showcase of the special effects we can achieve. However Melancholia showed only three people in a field cowering at a giant blue mass slowly approaching them and I was completely shaken. It wasn't just the visual, the sound built and built to an almost unbearable level making the final moments incredibly uncomfortable viewing. That's a complement, it was truly shocking.

Honorable Mentions
-Arm Off and Escape - 127 Hours, incredible direction, sound/music and editing plus the fact that this all actually happened made this a dead cert for my winner until the world ended.

Biggest Divide of Film Opinion
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II
Sam
 To any regular readers of Cinemazov opinion (Gavin) this will not come as a surprise but the film that came closest to tearing we two brothers asunder was the second part of that final film that they did about that Boy Wizard and his mates. SPOILER ALERT: It’s Crap. and I’ve decided I’m not going to go into a big spiel about it suffice to say that Grandmother Cinemazov agreed that it is pants.
Joe
There is no point in hiding my love for these fabulous films. They are unlike any other series and in some ways could be considered flawless. It is a fact, not opinion that they are brilliant and like any good fact I can fight any complaint against them. I sympathize with anyone who doesn't feel the warming glow of these eight films and can say only this, it is your loss. What does Sam know anyway, he loves Inception (or how I learned to stop worrying and get my story line from 5 minute conversations rather than exposition and smart storytelling)

Cinemazov's 1st Annual Film Awards Part Two

Kate's Most Confusing Film of 2011 (or perhaps more appropriately most inappropriate film to see when you are hungover, tired and have suspected bruised/ fractured ribs!)
Source Code
On the surface this seems like a great hangover movie! An action, thriller with just enough Sci-Fi and Duncan Jones direction to make it a more promising treat than your standard big name blockbuster. I am not easily confused and I’m sorry to say judge slightly those that do get confused by films but this film was a bit of a mind bender for me! So Jake Gyllenhaal is an army guy who goes into the last electrical activity of a dead man’s brain on a train that’s blown up already so he can find the bomber before he strikes again, so it’s all already happened but still Jake tries to change it and then does apparently huh?? Time travel, computers, science, and parallel universes – I’m ashamed to say it was too much for my fragile mind.  The brothers tried to answer my questions but in the end they told me, in no uncertain terms, to shut up! Apparently I broke the first rule of this sort of film and was overthinking it…..ALOT!!! Resolution for 2012 ;re-watch Source Code and face fear, hopefully realising that the science was sound and it all made perfect unparallelled sense…Either that or my head will explode!

Best Supporting Moustache
Matt Damon in True Grit
I tried for a month and I never reached this level of awesome
Matt Damon’s glorious Texas Ranger mouser in True Grit was a thing of utter beauty and Matt Damon further proved his acting chops by delivering some of 2011’s finest moustache acting.

Honorable Mentions
Adrien Brody did supreme work with Salvador Dali’s whimsical tasche in Midnight in Paris. 
-Dum Dum Dugan in Captain America now that was a majestic mouser.
-All the explorers in The Great White Silence


Best Opening Song
The Guard with N*E*R*D's Rock Star
Dublin's Premier Sugar Daddy
This film started with one hell of an epic bang. Within a minute it had completely set up the entire film. Simple bliss. This song played a large part in this set-up and  made an excellent impact on a N*E*R*D fan who'd lost their way, thanks McDonagh, you have made the first Grindhouse revival film that didn't feel the need to plaster it all over the place. Subtle Grindhouse is an oxymoron I can live with.

Honorable Mentions
Just go see The Guard already!


Best Freak Out
Michael Shannon in Take Shelter
Take Shelter was a brilliant film in almost every way but the one thing it really excelled at was freak outs. From the imaginary and dream-bound to the depressingly real, Shannon was in a downward spiral from the start. It culminates in a heart-wrenchingly upsetting cafeteria scene that displays quite tragically how far he has fallen. 

Honorable Mentions
-Much like take shelter Black Swan was a film containing several freak outs but culminating in one crushing blow.
-Jay in Kill List was nothing but one big freak out. f he wasn't freaking out he was getting ready to.
-Drive contained a great freak out because Gosling was silent for the most part and then the next moment he was in a lift caving a guys face in.

Best Reboot 
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
So Cute!
Planet of the Apes is a series that to me has always sounded really silly and reminded me of campy 70s cinema and yet I absolutely adore. The original 1968 Charlton Heston movie is a genuine Sci-Fi treat and should be on the top of everyone's film to see list if you haven't already. The four sequels are all campy fun that get gradually lower and lower in budget (The first had a budget of $5.8 million thee final instalment, an estimated $1.7) They are not fantastic films but have a wonderfully charming feel that is easily appreciated by any fan of the absurd. However 33 years later Tim Burton decided to turn his hand to a remake and we all know how that turned out. Planet of the Apes didn't exactly have a prestigious name at that point to the general public but any positive fame it did have was completely flushed down the toilet. This year we were treated to  prequel that I was both incredibly excited for and equally anxious about. It turned out to be pretty brilliant, adding interesting new elements to the Planet of the Apes back story whilst also being incredibly entertaining and surprisingly moving. Also Caesar was CGI and on at least nine different occasions I totally forgot. Turns out Andy Serkis is still a convincing simian. On top of all that it did well in the pubic eye too proving that Apes aren't just for geeky Sci-Fi nerds. 


Honorable Mentions
-X-Men First Class was much like Rise but loses because it's pedigree has been tarnished for a much shorter period of time.
-Melancholia finally breathed life back into the disaster movie making it about  the people not about big explosions and tsunami's and in my eyes totally counts as a reboot.

Most Impressive Career
Ryan Gosling
Before 2011 Ryan Gosling could be credited with Half Nelson and Lars and the Real Girl. Brilliant indie comedies, true but few and far between were his triumphs he wasn't really high up the list of actors to look out for. He became a heart throb for a year when The Notebook made girls (and some honest men *ahem*) want to run out in a storm and kiss him till they got pneumonia. However in 2011 for whatever reason he catapulted into brilliance. First there was Blue Valentine, a return to heart breaking romance. Then the phenomenal Drive followed by my surprise hit of the year Crazy, Stupid, Love.  He topped it all of with a lead role in the political thriller The Ides of March. Quite and year for quite a guy and he can lift you into the air Dirty Dancing style.......ladies.


Honorable Mentions
-Michelle Williams gave a stunning performance as Marilyn Monroe and starred in the brilliant Meek's Cutoff. She also shared the screen with our winner in Blue Valentine. Take This Waltz wasn't half bad either.
See you tomorrow for the final part of our awards