23 August 2010

various movie reviews

Actually I'll start with a TV review.

True Blood S3 yawn. S1 was great, S2 lacked a decent story arc and seemed to introduce new characters every other week. S3 appears to be suffering the same problems. There's no cohesive storyarc, which would be fine if it wasn't HBO, but we do expect better from them. I'm sure it's winding up for an explosive ending to the series, but it's very hard to engage with any of the characters. It's a useful waste of an hour, but not much more. Having said that, I think it's a little better than S2.
I realise the limitations they've got with the source material (it's really bad, struggled through the first book, never ever again), but still you can rewrite that.

Green Zone Can't remember if I mentioned I'd seen this. Really enjoyed it, excellent thriller. Interesting plot, well acted (Matt damon) and well paced. Basically if you want something thats not dumb, that critiques US policy in Iraq, and has explosions, watch this.

Shutter Island Having been very disappointed with Leo's Inception, I watched Shutter Island. Much much better. Interesting concept, although it has the been done before vibe about it. Having said that, the story is tight, acting excellent, and the atmosphere builds nicely.

I'll sleep when I'm dead No not a Warren Zevon retrospective, but a Clive Owen gangster flick. Owen is an ex-gangster who comes back to town after his younger brother dies. It's a nicely paced thriller, that feels cheaply made, which in this case, works well. Some of the dialogue is a bit hammy (think 60s UK crime movie), which is unfortunate as the cast is pretty damn good, but over all it works. Things aren't tied up nicely, no-one is blameless, and the implication you can't escape your past works well, without being overbearing. Enjoyed this. Oh and directed by Mike Hodges (Get Carter, Flash Gordon, and Queen's 'Body Language' single).

There's been a number of Bgrades too, but nothing of outstanding quality (?) which I need to bring to your attention.

B

8 comments:

The Rose and Dragon said...

I disagree!

Saw Green Zone the other day. Thought it was unbelievable and contrived with generally poor acting.

And you're wrong about Inception although Shutter Island is good :)

Mr A. P. Salmond, esq. said...

Well, I certainly agree about True Blood. Season Three is just limping along, and while it hopefully won't descend into the silly mess that season two became, it's still feeling very padded. Plus, I can't shake the feeling that everything that goes on in True Blood has already been done (PG style) in Buffy.

Anonymous said...

Sigh I wont tell anyone about the entire set of Southern Vampire books that I know are in our bedroom :D and the books are so much better than the HBO series - I am so right - as J said you're wrong :-p

The Rose and Dragon said...

Hello? Hello! I bet "anonymous" is SM who is too embarrassed to own up to her vampire obsession :)

Sphenodon said...

yeah you'd be right on that call. the books are fucking atrocious. badly written, badly structured, unbelievable character responses. bloody nightmare.
to the point where I think, and I feel so dirty saying this, that the Anne Rice books are possibly better.

As to Andrew's comment, yeah just finished rewatching Buffy, superb stuff. Generally. Still convinced Angel was a more cohesive series.

The Rose and Dragon said...

Haha, you wait until you get the Twilight series in there. Phwoaarrrr. :)

The Rose and Dragon said...

On reflection, your non-judgmental nature and ability to accept the points of view of others is definitely your best quality.

Anonymous said...

S would like to point out that she doesnt give a flying rats arse - I like them!! Not an obsession just a wee easy read - I read snotloads whereas DH reads like a fecking snail on downers - but it doesnt matter books in UK are cheap as chips so I can indulge myself to my hearts content all I like :-p