July Films

July is here and with it the biggest films of the Summer. I like Summer blockbusters and this year is much less congested with them, the result being that I actually got to see most of them.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I was a big fan of the first film, I did not watch the cartoon when younger so was new to the whole thing and still very much enjoyed it so went into this film with high expectations (i.e. excitement, explosions, big robot fights and most importantly fun). My expectations were met. The plot is that the Decepticons (bad guys) have a boss called The Fallen who doesn't like humans and wants to destroy the Sun using a lost machine that requires a lost key and the only way he can find these 2 is by using the information that has been implanted into Shia Leboef's head. It's Transformers of course it doesn't make any sense. This films replicates the action and adventure of the first film while having a lot more humour and thus was very entertaining and, despite being almost 2 1/2 hours I enjoyed every minute of it, 9/10.

Year One. Harold Ramis wrote Ghostbusters and directed Groundhog Day, one of the best comedies ever made. How the mighty have fallen. Year One involves Jack Black overacting for all he is worth, Michael Cera doing the best with the material he has been given and a lot of toilet humour. In short not funny or worth seeing, 3/10.

Public Enemies. I am a Michael Mann fan and have been eagerly awaiting this film. While I don't think that Heat is a particularly standout film I was a big fan of Collateral. I also have high expectations when I hear names like Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in the same film. The film deals with the life of the criminal John Dillinger. My first issue with the film is that I have no real knowledge of American 1930s criminals or indeed US domestic politics at the time. The film assumes that you have at least a cursory knowledge of icons such as J. Edgar Hoover. The fact that I didn't meant that it was difficult to put the film in any context. So when America's first war on crime is launched I am not sure why. The other issue with the film is that there is very little to remark upon in the way that there is in Ridley Scott's American Gangster for instance. Dillinger is represented as someone who is good at his job rather than someone who has some outstanding skill or ingenuity in the way Denzel Washington does. Mann also clearly idolises Dillinger despite the fact that he is a criminal. All this comes together to mean that the film is no more than ok, 6/10.

The Taking of Pelham 123. I am generally a fan of this type of thriller but this one take itself a bit too seriously. I did not know the original but this one is clearly trying to create a relationship between the hostage taker and the metro employee similar to the relationship created in Phone Booth or Inside Man. This doesn't quite work though, the film isn't quite enjoyable enough or clever enough, it has one twist which it hints at so many times you have worked it out an hour before it is revealed. The film showed a lot of potential and is not entirely without merit but a much better script was required here, 6/10.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I am a big fan of the Harry Potter films which have been getting better and better. This book was always going to be a hard one to do as it is much more open ended that the rest. It is also a much darker story that the previous ones. In the fourth and fifth films the filmmakers worked to make them a bit darker and more grown up. In this one they actually work to make the film more enjoyable the darkness comes by itself. The acting from the senior members, including a good performance from Jim Broadbent the newest cast member, down to the junior cast is very good. As with the others the film is long and moves at quite a pace to fit everything in. The mystifying moment in the film is when, despite all the scenes that they have had to cut from the book, there is a short and pointless action scene that would have made J.K. Rowling turn in her grave (wait a minute). The purpose of the scene presumably is to keep the audience from getting bored although the film is exciting enough, even without action until the end, that it doesn't need it. Nonetheless the film is funny and exciting and it is difficult to see how the source material could have been produced better, 8/10.