March Movie Madness

I watched loads of films last month. Most aren’t worth mentioning – but below are some short reviews of the ones I enjoyed the most.

Hellboy 2

Call me weird but the original Hellboy is one of my favorite films. It’s up there with Blade 2 as a really enjoyable popcorn action flick. I love the cartoony over the topness. The colourful characters – and slightly crazy special effects – they all add up to make a really enjoyable movie that is clearly not taking itself too seriously.

As such – I was really looking forward to Hellboy 2, and I wasn’t dissapointed. The formula wasn’t really touched and frankly it didn’t need to be. Del Toro favourite, Ron Perlman, reprised his role as the grumpy red devil – and Luke Goss, one half of 80’s pop group ‘Bros’ showed off his martial arts flair as the enemy of the piece. In fact he was almost a mirror image of his role in Blade 2 – and that’s no bad thing.

Slightly cheesey, but massive amounts of fun to be had.

Taking Woodstock

This one was a surprise to me. I was expecting to be bored – but it ended up being a lot of fun. It was also the third film that Universal have sent me that features nudity… and I have unknowingly watched on the train. I think I will start reading synopsis of the films online before watching them.

The movie tells the true story of a small American town that decides to host a music festival – and ends up taking over their lives. I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised about it’s quality since it was directed by Ang Lee who has an incredibly eclectic taste in films but, more importantly, has more hits than misses.

Castle of Cagliostro

Hayao Miyazaki’s first feature film, and a hugely enjoyable experience it is too.

It tells the story of a master thief, who enjoys challenging himself, and ends up caught in the middle of a conspiracy

My Neighbour Totoro

Jo bought me a tiny Totoro for Christmas – so I thought it would be fun to watch the film that inspired them.

My second Miyazaki movie of the month, and totally different to the first, but no less enchanting. A beautiful, family friendly film, awesome.

A Serious Man

A Cohen Brothers movie that I wasn’t aware existed. The brothers have a really distinctive style and they’ve made many films I enjoy (Fargo, and the The Lady Killers being two) but the Serious Man confused me. It had a really interesting premise and kept me hooked the whole way through. Many times I thought something awesome would happen – and then it ended.

Maybe I’m stupid but I seem to have missed the point. I’m going to read the story on Wikipedia/ IMDB to see if anyone there has a better idea of what happened (and why).

Yes Man

Ok – it’s daft, and strays a long way from the original (very funny) book, but watching Yes Man was an entertaining way to spend an evening.

Cirque du Freak: Vampires Apprentice

Was expecting absolutely nothing from this – so was really pleasantly surprised. I had assumed it would be the standard angsty teenage vampire stuff that’s filling pop culture at the moment, but actually it was a bit younger, and pretty light and refreshing.

Vampires Apprentice is based on a Darren Shan book, an author I have never read, but now I am intrigued and considering giving it a purchase to see how the story continues. I hope they turn the rest of the books into films as well as based on this one it will be a lot of fun.

Top Ten Movies – March 2010

1. Hell Boy 2
2. My Neighbour Totoro
3. 9 (full review coming soon)
4. Castle of Cagliostro
5. Vampires Apprentice
6. Taking Woodstock
7. The Serious Man
8. Yes Man
9. Southland Tales
10. Fantastic Four

The Left Overs…

If you’re interested; the films I would recommend ignoring are:

• The Banquet – Martial Arts version of Hamlet… would probably have been more interesting if I had read Hamlet, but instead I found it rather slow.
• Southland Tales, I actually quite enjoyed this, but it wasn’t as good as Donnie Darko – and the ending just felt a bit bizarre and unfocused.
• Rennaisance, a case of style over substance. The (English) voices didn’t fit the characters which ruined the illusion. The story was slow and ponderous which would probably be great for people who enjoy Blade Runner. Not so much for me.
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, middle of the road super hero flick. Nothing specifically bad about it… But nothing great either.