October's Films

I try to keep up what has been out recently so here is my review of cinema in general through October.
Righteous Kill. It has been a long time since Robert De Niro has done a strong performance in a serious film and Al Pacino is just not getting the parts anymore. Neither of them have showed a great capacity for versatility either. However with Righteous Kill we have a gritty cop drama (which we know both De Niro and Pacino can do) and what’s more we have them together. What is unique about this film is they spend most of the film on screen at the same time. In the Godfather Part II they were not in the same scenes and in Heat they only had about 2 scenes together. So there was some potential to this film. However, the problem was the script. The dialogue was slow and gave the actors no room to work, the twist at the end was very predictable and there was only character in the film that was ever developed as the writer quite clearly didn’t care about anyone else. Neither Pacino nor De Niro are bad but they have no material with which to be good. 3/10 would be generous.
Eagle Eye. It’s quite hard to talk about this film without giving its central premise away but I will try. What we have in Eagle Eye is a special effects blockbuster reminiscent of Transformers. The objective of this type of film is enjoyment, pure and simple. When I went into Eagle Eye I did not expect Citizen Kane, I expected, or rather wanted anyway, a fast paced action thriller which kept me on the edge of my seat and gave me the feeling of having had a good time upon leaving the cinema. This I got and more. The film is well directed and well acted. It is fast paced, while there is a lot of action to over burden you, admittedly it takes a lot of action to overburden me, and there are a few laughs on the way to grease the wheels. The central premise of the film, which I can’t say, is quite clever and makes an interesting (and quite edgy) political point. Easily 8/10.
Death Race. Yes I went to see it. It’s called Death Race and that’s what it is. Predictable, not particularly clever but retains enough (only just) style and excitement to be watchable. 6/10
Tropic Thunder. Probably September but nonetheless… The premise of the film, a group of actors filming a war film straying into an actual war zone, is quite good. The cast is mostly strong with cameos from half of Hollywood. The film starts strongly with trailers for some of the characters previous films which are hilarious (especially Downey Jr.s). The plot makes enough sense, the jokes are mostly funny and the Tom Cruise cameo in the second half steals the show. The weaknesses of the film, which there are unfortunately, are: the film is more violent than it needs to be which distracts from the comedy, the Jack Back character is badly written and so consequently makes little sense and isn’t funny, the token black guy is so token he has few lines and even fewer jokes and Ben Stiller spends his time being Ben Stiller and doing what Ben Stiller does in every film he is in, having said that he is on occasion quite funny. Robert Downey Jr. is very good indeed and even Matthew McConaughey produces a strong cameo. Nevertheless a good film 7/10.
City of Ember. At last a believable post apocalyptic setting. One of the main assumptions of post apocalyptic films is that it is assumed that you will forgive the fact that never in a million, maybe more, years will the world ever be like this (The Matrix excluded). City of Ember, however, isn’t. The main premise of the film is that an unknown disaster occurs, I liked the fact that you do no know what happened, although it could be inferred to be nuclear war, and a group of scientists get together and build a settlement deep underground where a group of citizens can survive. The instructions to escape are put inside a box that is given the mayor of the city who is entrusted to hand it down to his successor as mayor for 200 years when the box is programmed to open. 200 years later the box has been lost and is in the cupboard of a teenage girl. The City that is called Ember is a small town out of the 1900s they re use everything, they have a small amount of tinned food but most of it they grow in greenhouses that have electric light. The city is powered by a generator that is breaking. All the citizens choose their job out of a hat and the city is governed but a corrupt mayor played by Bill Murray. The city is dying after 200 years and everyone is afraid to try and leave. The teenage girl, played very well by Saoise Ronan, finds the box and together with this boy she meets tries to find the way out. The film is well directed and well acted. The film made me laugh, made me cry, was visually beautiful and throughout it all had a sense of childlike innocence that we need more of. The few weaknesses of the film are that Bill Murray cannot play a bad guy, corrupt and decadent yes, but he can’t do bad. Also there I a mutant mole running about in the bowels of the city for no apparent reason but aside from these minor flaws a brilliant film 9/10.
Igor. A brilliant premise of a world of mad scientists, each with their own assistant called Igor, paid by the world not to release their inventions on them. The main character, an Igor, has created 2 inventions, a suicidal bunny who cannot die and a brain in a jar which has no intelligence. After his master dies in an experiment the Igor decides that he can build an experiment using his master’s identity. He creates life in a Bride of Frankensteinesque (it’s a word honest) way. The problem is that his monster, instead of being evil wants to play the lead in Annie. Sounds good doesn’t it. However, this is the entire film. These are all the jokes in the film that are repeated ad nauseam throughout. Despite the world it is set in the film tries to be pink and fluffy where it should have had an Addams family morbidity. The script lacks a quality that the likes of Shrek and Pixar thrive upon. The film simply doesn’t live up to its potential. 6/10
Notable absentees:
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. Comedy is meant to make you laugh not cringe. I did not laugh at all in the trailer and saw nothing about the film to make me want to watch it. Simon Pegg should spend his time writing his own films, which he is very good at, rather than starring in films like this, I may forgive him being in Star Trek.
Brideshead Revisited. Too far down the list, didn’t have time.
The House Bunny. I do still have some self respect.
Bangkok Dangerous. Not going to lose sleep over missing this.
Ghost Town. It just looked like an excuse for Ricky Gervais to get on the big screen for 2 hours rather than a genuine attempt at cinema.
Anything else. What do you think I live in a cinema and am made of money. It’s an understandable mistake to make but is sadly not true.