Wow, it’s the time of year again it seems to come round quicker every year. I missed a couple of months of this year’s cinema offerings due to being stupidly busy and not being able to get to the cinema. I missed a few films I quite wanted to see but luckily not too many, hopefully I’ll catch them on DVD at some point. I have to say after a short break from the cinema it’s nice to be going again and I have had a great start to the year with 3 cracking films and at least a couple more I’m really looking forward to on the way soon.
First my general thoughts on last year’s cinema. When I wrote my Oscar post last year I said that I was left wondering whether we were going to see movies made just to make money but I’m pleased to say we seemed to have bounced back a little this year. Interesting to note though that most of the films that are at the top of my ratings recently have also been doing pretty well at the box office. May be it is in producers best interest to be making good
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So it’s that time of year again, can’t believe it’s coming round already, I nearly forgot to write my post thanks Trev for reminding me! First really a few comments about this ‘Oscar’ year of movies. I say ‘Oscar’ year because we get some movies later than the US so I have not always seen them before the big night!
Overall I have felt that the standard of movies this year has not been as high as last years. Last year I spent a really long but enjoyable night at the cinema where I saw three of the movies up for best motion picture and I thought they were all absolutely brilliant movies and I think any of the 5 nominees could have won it, this year? well I’m not so sure. It’s been a year which has seen 3D movies become more popular, especially with the highly successful Avatar. I’m still not convinced, I’m also not convinced that sequels, CGI, big explosions, etc is what cinema should be about, I’m sure there’s room for them but not every movie. I truly believe going to the cinema is about the experience and as I say that doesn’t mean surround sound,
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After a very busy weekend at the cinema I have now seen most of the major Oscar contenders and am now in a position to give my thoughts on what the major winners will be. I’m only going to look at some of the major categories otherwise I’ll be here all day.
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Richard Jenkins in “The Visitor”
Frank Langella in “Frost/Nixon”
Sean Penn in “Milk”
Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler”
I’ve seen all but ‘The Visitor’ and I have to say there are some good performance from that list and I believe it’s one of the strongest categories. I think they’ll give it to Mickey Rourke for his performance in ‘The Wrestler’ although I was impressed by his performance I don’t think it stood above an equally impressive performance by Frank Langella’s as Nixon. Both are great performance but Sean Penn’s performance as Harvey Milk was truly outstanding and has to be the pick of the five.
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Josh Brolin in “Milk”
Robert Downey Jr. in “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Doubt”
Heath Ledger in
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I just wanted to pass comment about the technical aspect of two films I’ve seen recently, the two films I’m talking about are ‘Valkryie’ and ‘Seven Pounds’, just so you know there will be some spoilers in this post, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know what either film is about. I say spoilers, I’m not sure I could spoil ‘Seven pounds’ I wasn’t a great fan of it.
What’s my gripe with both films, well, it’s got nothing to do with their subject matter or what I thought of them. It’s to do with eyes, yes those two things on the front of your face you use to see. I spend a fair bit of time looking at eyes in my job so I think I know a little about them. On to my complains…..
Firstly, I had a major problem with the end of ‘Seven pounds’. At the beginning of the film we see Ezra Turner (Woody Harrelson) he obviously has something wrong with his eyes, more specifically it looks like the cornea, not sure exactly what he’s supposed to have but the front looks white (should be clear) so I’m guessing some corneal scarring,
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Those of you who actually visit my site occasionally may remember me saying I wanted to add a movie review page, due to the number of films I currently watch I wanted it to be easy to update. Well, the more observant among you will notice the ‘movie’ link now in my menu. I found this great wordpress plugin, nearly exactly what I wanted. I want to do a bit to the styling and it would be nice to be able to pull movie poster images but it looks good.
In other movie news, I went to see ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ at the cinema this week, yes the 1946 classic which I’d never seen before, they had a special screening, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had no surround sound, was in 4:3 ratio and in black and white, the special effects were rubbish, but you know what it had characters I ended up carrying about and a plot that had a message. It got me to thinking about modern films, they are mostly about who did the best chase scene, the best action sequence, best special effects, who made the most money, how much
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After much deliberation I have signed up for a years unlimited cinema, this is with Cineworld who happen to run my local cinema, but I can visit any Cineworld (except London West End), it’s worth doing if you go and see 3+ films a month. I’ve already been busy using my card, due to the number of films I am now watching I don’t have time to review them (I’m not very good at it either!). I want to continue making some reference to films on my blog, so I’m currently trying to set up a separate movie section which will have what films I’ve seen plus some kind of rating system – let’s see how long that takes me to put together, don’t hold your breath!
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So I decided to venture into the latest addition to the new Westfield Centre in Derby. Before the cinema was opened I wasn’t over optimistic, I was worried about the price and I’m not a great fan of the current showcase cinema in Derby. I do think having a cinema in a city centre rather than in the outskirts as it is much easy for people to get to.
Firstly, the Price, well for a standard ticket it’s £7 (slightly cheaper during the day, I think), not the cheapest but only about 50p more than the cinema I normally go to. There is also a ‘director’s hall’ which you pay a premium for, for that you get leather seats and private lounge for food and drinks.
What did I think? You go up the escalator into the cinema from the shopping centre. I was greeted by someone who pointed me in the right direction. The lobby area is very open and modern, very different from alot of cinemas where it is just a empty void. There is a restaurant to one side, a large snack area to the other (with a row of at least 10 LCD screens showing prices),
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I recently went to the cinema to watch Wall.e, as it’s a ‘family’ film and it’s currently the summer holidays I wasn’t surprised to see a lot of kids there. In fact, apart from my brother I think the only adults were parents! Anyway this complaint isn’t just at kids it’s just they were the problem this time.
My basic complaint is not about that it tastes like sweet polystyrene or that you always walk out of a cinema with it stuck to your shoes. To be honest it’s not just popcorn, its any sweets that make noise. I hate sitting listening to people eat for 2 hours non-stop. I’ve also noticed this not just at the cinema but the theatre and concerts as well.
My question is when did it become necessary to eat when watching entertainment and why do they always sell noisy food like sweets in wrappers that rustle or the dreaded squeaky popcorn? and finally why do these people who ever they are, choose a really quiet part of the show/film to open these rustle sweets or munch down a bag of popcorn.
Who ever you are please stop it! Thank you (rant over)
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