Showing posts with label film review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film review. Show all posts

Knight and Day Review

Posted by Should I See It on Saturday, July 31, 2010 , under , , , , , , , | comments (0)





Film: Knight and Day.
Director: James Mangold.
Starring: Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Peter Sarsgaard and Viola Davis.
Plot: The life of a woman (Diaz) is turned upside down, when she accidently becomes involved with a rouge Federal Agent (Cruise).
Rating:


I really wonder what it is like to not be afraid of pain. When I watch action movies and the characters leap between cars or off buildings, I always wonder if they ever think, ‘if I miss that car/truck/building I will most certainly break every other bone in my body, sustain severe spinal and brain injuries and may never walk again…’ or do they think… ‘if I miss this car/truck/building, then ….. bring on the pain! I’m not afraid of pain.’

The reason I mention this, is because Tom Cruise’s character in Knight and Day leaps off an alarming number of buildings, cars trucks you name it, without a second thought. Granted he lands every time, MOSTLY sustaining nothing but a few minor injuries (unless of course, it is dramatically important for injuries to occur). But I had to wonder, do characters in action movies ever get scared? Or do they know they will be transformed into Computer Generated Images and thereby negating all fear?



Anyway, that’s all beside the point.

What is there to say about Knight and Day?

It delivers exactly what it promises. Explosions, car chases, gun fights, a bit of romance and a bit of comedy in there for good measure. If you can ignore the silliness of it all, it is actually quite a fun time. Expert film making: not really. Fun: well, yes.

The plot of Knight and Day is inherently ridiculous. For that reason, the film hinges on the performances of Cruise and Diaz more than you would expect, actually. Tom Cruise is funny. Who knew? Cameron Diaz delivers what she does in her usual rom- com fair, just with a gun and some explosions this time around. Not that it’s a bad thing. She is a good foil for Cruise.



Knight and Day boasts quite a few big names in the supporting cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Dano, Viola Davis (her performance made me cringe) but the movie is really Cruise and Diaz doing what they do best: looking pretty for the camera.

Knight and Day is a date movie. Plenty of love-y bits for the girls, plenty of guns and explosions for the boys.


Should I See It?

Only if you’re in the mood for mindless fluff.



Knight and Day Official Site here.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief Review

Posted by Should I See It on Monday, February 22, 2010 , under , , , | comments (1)



Percy Jackson Lightning Thief Logan Lerman Brandon T Jackson Alexandra Daddario Pierce Brosnan Sean Bean Uma Thurman Chris Columbus


Film: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Director: Chris Columbus
Plot: A teenager discovers he's the descendant of a Greek god and sets out on an adventure to settle an on-going battle between the gods
Starring: Logan Lerman, Brandon T Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, Uma Thurman.







If JK Rowling and CS Lewis ever had a love child, I imagine it would have turned out something like Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

You really can’t help but compare it to either of them, especially Harry Potter: there are too many similarities in the plots and the conundrums that the heroes face.

Also the cinematic realisation of the two are incredibly similar, probably because the director of Percy Jackson, Chris Columbus, also directed Harry Potter 1 and 2.

Actually I would say that Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a better FILM that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone*, because it is better acted, better paces and (a little) more imaginatively shot. It’s almost as if Percy Jackson is what Chris Columbus intended to do with Potter 1&2 but didn’t quite get there.



I know I’m not exactly the target audience for Percy Jackson, but I enjoyed it. It’s not fantastic or ground breaking cinema, but it is very good for what it is: an enjoyable, special effects laden two hours (and that is not intended to be demeaning in any way).

Of course there are few problems with the film that come along with this genre and adapting from a novel.

The opening scenes feel a bit rushed; almost as if there was a lot stuff from the book that they didn’t put in (I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know if that was the case, but that’s what it felt like). Once it got past the awkward opening, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a well paced film.

The plot is a little but silly: Someone has stolen Zeus’ lightning bolt and he thinks Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, has taken it. You can pick who the lightning thief is very early on (hint, it’s not Percy Jackson). Your kids might not pick it though. I guess this brings us to the crux of the matter. Percy Jackson is a kid’s film, but it is by no means painful for the parents to sit through.



The quest of this story is somewhat confused. While the film is called Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, the hero’s (self imposed) quest is not to find the lightning thief, but to find Percy’s mother, who has been kidnapped by Hades and taken to the underworld, in exchange for the stolen lightning. Percy thinks that once Hades realises he doesn’t have the lightning, Hades will let his mother go. In fact it never actually occurs to Percy and Co. to find out who the lightning thief is to put a stop to the war of the gods. It is a bit of a lightning bolt moment for Percy (pardon the pun) when her realises that all he has to do is return the lightning bolt to Zeus. Meanwhile the audience is thinking: ‘Duh! That’s what I thought this movie was about!’

Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson) is an appealing hero. He is a better actor than Daniel Radcliffe, and looks and sounds an awful lot like Zac Efron. I can’t really say anything beyond that about the performances (except Catherine Keener was awful; she made no effort to look interested in any of the scenes she was in) because it’s really not that type of movie. The movie is really about an adventure, as long as the plot keeps moving and the special effects keep coming, every one’s happy.



When exiting the cinema, I was walking behind a mother and her three sons aged between six and twelve, all of whom loved the film. I couldn’t help but over hear the eldest of the boys said “That was reeeeeeally good! I can’t wait to read the book now!!!!” In my opinion, if it gets kids to read, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief must be doing something right.



Should I See It?

Yes, it’s enjoyable,just be prepared to switch your brain off and just go along for the ride.








 
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief Official Site here.



*I am in no way suggesting that either of these movies are great examples of cinema, nor am I suggesting that the Percy Jackson books are better than the Harry Potter books. I am only saying that comparatively, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is a better FILM that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, irrespective of their source material.