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Quick rundown of the last week's viewing:
Lantana - less a thriller than a really solid drama for grown-ups with compelling, complex characters and a mystery in the second half. Excellent film, if small-scale, with career best work from Anthony LaPaglia. Barbara Hershey continues to be hot.
All the X-Men films (bar Wolverine) - starting with First Class which is so good for 90% of its run time, its annoying that a couple of the characters are pretty lame (Angel and Banshee) and they feel the need to throw in silly lines like, "I'll start going bald soon!". Aside from these minor gripes though, its a really fun film and sets up a new leaf in the franchise very handsomely. I think Cappy has more charm (I've got such a weakness for Joe Johnston films, sorry), but this is clearly the best superhero film of 2011.
The Singer films are just great. X2 is probably not my favourite comic book movie any more, buts its still one of the best. But what surprised me is how not bad The Last Stand is. I think if you don't begrudge Ratner making it, its a really enjoyable and pretty huge scale superhero film and it has Vaughn's fingerprints all over it. Its really trying hard to please all the people and throws in so many characters, its amazing how many of them are well-represented. What saddles the film a bit is that this had the potential to be the best possible X-flick ever and it doesn't really do the Phoenix storyline justice. But I honestly disagree with anyone that writes the film off. Its a lot of fun and has some of the best effects of the series.
Taken as a trilogy, its pretty damn solid and I only realised this time that Mystique is so clearly my favourite character. She's badass, but never comes off as evil, she's got an awesome power that the filmmakers continue to find inventive ways of illustrating throughout the series and she seems to really enjoy fucking with people and fucking shit up. Not to mention, she looks like Rebecca Romijn, who brings a lot of character to what could have just been an excuse to have tits in a PG-13 (see January Jones in First Class for an example of failing at this). If Last Stand commits one unforgivable sin, its that Mystique disappears from the story in the first third.
I've taken some time off work for my birthday, so this weekend I'm gonna try and cram in Haywire, War Horse, The Artist and Shame. Wish me luck!
Lantana - less a thriller than a really solid drama for grown-ups with compelling, complex characters and a mystery in the second half. Excellent film, if small-scale, with career best work from Anthony LaPaglia. Barbara Hershey continues to be hot.
All the X-Men films (bar Wolverine) - starting with First Class which is so good for 90% of its run time, its annoying that a couple of the characters are pretty lame (Angel and Banshee) and they feel the need to throw in silly lines like, "I'll start going bald soon!". Aside from these minor gripes though, its a really fun film and sets up a new leaf in the franchise very handsomely. I think Cappy has more charm (I've got such a weakness for Joe Johnston films, sorry), but this is clearly the best superhero film of 2011.
The Singer films are just great. X2 is probably not my favourite comic book movie any more, buts its still one of the best. But what surprised me is how not bad The Last Stand is. I think if you don't begrudge Ratner making it, its a really enjoyable and pretty huge scale superhero film and it has Vaughn's fingerprints all over it. Its really trying hard to please all the people and throws in so many characters, its amazing how many of them are well-represented. What saddles the film a bit is that this had the potential to be the best possible X-flick ever and it doesn't really do the Phoenix storyline justice. But I honestly disagree with anyone that writes the film off. Its a lot of fun and has some of the best effects of the series.
Taken as a trilogy, its pretty damn solid and I only realised this time that Mystique is so clearly my favourite character. She's badass, but never comes off as evil, she's got an awesome power that the filmmakers continue to find inventive ways of illustrating throughout the series and she seems to really enjoy fucking with people and fucking shit up. Not to mention, she looks like Rebecca Romijn, who brings a lot of character to what could have just been an excuse to have tits in a PG-13 (see January Jones in First Class for an example of failing at this). If Last Stand commits one unforgivable sin, its that Mystique disappears from the story in the first third.
I've taken some time off work for my birthday, so this weekend I'm gonna try and cram in Haywire, War Horse, The Artist and Shame. Wish me luck!
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