My Latest opinion on the recent releases at the cinema



Wall · E

Wall · E. Wall · E, Wall · E...pronounced Wall <pause> E not like Wally! Apparently it’s ‘better than Toy Story’ and the best animation Pixar has ever done IMDB rates it as the 25th best film ever and I have to say that, that isn’t far from the truth. The year is 2700 and Wall · E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth-Class) spends his days packing up rubbish with his best friend (a cockroach) on the now deserted Earth. Human’s left the planet to live on huge space cruise ships where they spend their whole lives eating lunch, from a cup and being completely controlled by the hover chairs that are making them gradually more and more obese. Probes are regularly sent to earth to search for plant life and signs that the planet is safe to return too, one of these probes, is Eve. Without giving away any more of the story, Eve finds a plant that Wall-E has been keeping safe and has to return it to the ship and decide the fate of mankind, but this doesn’t come easy and Wall-E ends up following Eve into space to leave behind what he was built for, and to do what he was meant for, love. Cheesy I know but its Disney, it’s a U rating and Peter Gabriel provides the theme song so what do you expect.

Wall-E isn’t just ‘another animation’ like The Barnyard or Madagascar, this film should be put up on the same level as Toy Story, The Incredibles or Finding Nemo, Wall-E is an animation heavy weight and deserves all the respect it’s given. The lack of dialogue was a risky think to do by Pixar, with almost half the film being made up of only noises and the lack of famous voice actors is just a sign that Pixar know that the film is good as it is, and it doesn’t need a million-billion celebrity inputs like Madagascar did. The film is heart-warming, funny, intelligent, unimaginably original and as many other positive adjectives that you can think of, if you see any film this year, for God’s sake please make it Wall-E. If I could I’d give it 6 out of 5...but that would break Olihaydon.com, just know that in those 5 wonderful stars is a hidden 6th that’s simply begging you to go!


 



Hancock:

 

Smokin’ Aces actor come ‘The Kingdom’ director Peter Berg decided to try his hand at directing again with his latest project, Hancock. John Hancock (Will Smith) is a superhero, but he doesn’t really get on that well with people, he does more damage than he prevents, comprendé? Cue Jason Batemen (also in The Kingdom and Smokin’ Aces), his ‘PR Manager’ whose job it is to give Hancock the reputation that most superhero’s have...loved by all yada yada yada. Then cue his wife (Bateman’s) Charlize Theron (not his actual wife, don’t worry), who (spoiler ahead – Highlight to see) is also a superhero, with the same powers as Hancock.. Anyway, enough of the story, you’ll understand it if...you see it.

Ok...my problem with Hancock is this, for 35 minutes in the beginning, it’s brilliant! Will Smith is funny, the action is great, the CGI is...fine and it’s a pretty original movie (the whole...bad superhero thing). But then...after this...Prelude if you will, it gets diabolically awful. The next hour is made up of a patchy, poorly put together story with no real purpose or destination, it’s predictable, the acting seems to decline the more Theron is on screen and Hancock’s costume is just...as bad as this part of the film.

But then! What’s this? 10 minutes before the end, the film finds itself again, the soundtrack boasts it’s superiority in the film, the story pull’s itself together and the ending is...well...umm...nice. That’s it, it’s nothing special, but it’s a nice...tacky ending.

There isn’t too much left to say, the first bit...4 stars, the rest (bar the ending) 0 stars...so average (kinda), a generous 2. If you go and see this film, spend £1 instead of £6 and just see the first 35 minutes, then leave...you’ll be wasting your time otherwise.

Kung Fu Panda:

 

I went into the full cinema with really high hopes, Kung-Fu Panda had received praise from almost every critic, it’s the most popular film ever in China, it’s top of the box office in the USA and Australia and fact that the trailer was great was the final straw, I had to see this film. It’s well known in the industry that film makers shove all the best parts of a film into its trailer...makes sense, show the public what they could be missing. I think the people at Dreamworks must’ve had a really hard time making the trailer, not because there isn’t enough good stuff, there’s too much...if it was me the trailer would’ve been 90 minutes long, and I still would’ve gone to see it. There’s nothing much to say about this film apart from the bona fide fact that it’s awesome, sheer brilliance. The animation is the best I’ve ever seen for this style and the voices couldn’t be better with Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan leading the way..Oh and not forgetting the bad-guy voice Ian McShane (Lovejoy, Dallas, Miami Vice, Magnum P.I). The soundtrack was also perfect for the film and I wasn’t particularly surprised when I got home and saw that it was Hans Zimmer that provided it. This isn’t just the best animation this summer; this is probably the best animation for a long time. I laughed, I (almost) cried and I didn’t want to blink in case I missed a second of this gloriously fantastic movie.

Wanted

Now, according to Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted’s director) "Wanted" tells the tale of one apathetic nobody's transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice...”...Yeah..Ok, well that didn’t really make much sense so let’s break it down. I think a key part of a film is its opening scene, or starting words...unfortunately, for Wanted they must’ve left the key on the table since it begins with the annoyingly bad fake American accent of our main man, Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy), to be fair, it is a joke and it got a few laughs. The film’s plot would take too long to really fully explain, it has lots of cloth and fate involved in it with the growling tones of Morgan Freeman every half an hour to remind you that this film does have its forté’s.  Wesley is a regular guy until he realises that he belongs in The Fraternity, some big-ass assassin group who choose their targets depending on...cloth. Yeah, I told you it’s hard to explain. Anyway, the plot is...crap really, it’s bad...not really bad but still, the story is bad. But...I hear you wonder “Why do you give it 4 Stars Mr Oli?”, well curious reader I’ll explain!

You go to the cinema as a form of entertainment, like...bowling or...a BBQ?! I want to be entertained for the £6 it cost me to sit down for 2 hours and look at a big screen, and I can say with upmost certainty that ‘Wanted’, was value for money. It may have made no sense at times but the thing was, it knew it didn’t make sense It wasn’t like the Matrix Reloaded where it tried to have a story. ‘Wanted’ was just pure entertainment, the stunts, the fights, the chases, the explosions, the rats (you’ll see) were top class and utterly ridiculous, but in the same way as cheese rolling is ridiculous, in the good way. Please, I beg of you, to go see this film, it’s the ultimate action film for 2009, screw The Incredible Hulk or The Dark Knight, this was just...ridiculously and undeniably brilliant!




Be Kind Rewind

 Michel Gondry, who brought us Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Science of Sleep is back with his own film, Be Kind Rewind. It follows the story Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) who own a video store on the outskirts of New York. Basically the film all kicks off when Jerry (Black) accidentaly erases every tape in the store and so Mike and him have to work together to fix the problem by making the videos themselves using a dodgey 80s video camera and a lot of cardboard. It's a comedy, but I wasn't laughing the entire way through like a brilliant comedy would make me, the funniest parts were when the remakes or 'Sweded' versions of the films were shown, especially if you've seen the film they're remaking. Putting the low laughter level fact aside, the film means well, it's got a good solid story with a beginning, a middle and an end, which so many of the new comedy's simply don't have. Jack Black and Mos Def are a brilliant duo and despite the fact that it's pretty weak for a comedy, the film is still worth seeing, just maybe next time Gondry should stick to directing the film, not writing it as well.



Jumper

    Ok, Jumper was the 2nd film of 2008 and after reading the reviews of it beforehand, I wasn't expecting The Shawshank Redemption of action films. To sum up the film in a word it would be dissapointment. The idea is, this guy (Hayden Christiansen) has some genetic ability to travel anywhere in the world just by looking at a picture of it or imagining it in his head. Sounds like a pretty cool idea no? Of course it does! but what a mess this film makes of this. The plot doesn't actually start until 30 minutes into the 1hr 30 min film and by then you're already pretty bored with the whole jumpy round look at me stuff. Mr Jumper man finds a girl, he jumps her to Rome, they see home, then Samuel L. Jackson comes along with poorly co-ordinated hair and beard colour for some reason, he wants to kill them for a reason nobody can explain at all in the film...something to do with God.
    It sounds as if I wasn't really paying attention in the cinema but I really was, trust me, I wanted this film to be great but it just couldn't be. So Jackson is chasing Christiansen and his girl (someone from the O.C. or something), then...Jamie Bell comes along (Billy Elliott)!! He is a jumper too and they both jump around together trying to stop being killed...it's all together a very poor film, and before I could hate it even more I found out Jumper 2 is currently being made...joy of joys! The thing is, its a great idea, its just done with people who can't act, apart from Jackson and Bell but they don't play the main two parts...sometimes it reminded me of the first 3 Star Wars films (Episode I,II and III), Samuel L. Jackson is running around with a wierd lightsaber type thing trying to make Hayden Christiansen (Anakin/Vader) stop being who he is, it just brought back horrible memories. Anyway, this review is way too long right now, a combination of a idea with great potential and poor acting but cool CGI and some pretty funky action scenes forced me to give Jumper a modest 2 stars. Check Jumper out, you might like it.


Charlie Wilson's War

This was the first film I saw of 2008 and I was hoping it wasn't going to be that good simply 'cos I didnt want to give it another 4 or 5 star rating and reviewing really bad films is a lot more fun. Anyway, Charlie Wilson's War follows, suprisingly enough, Charlie Wilson, a Texas congressman who gets himself involved in covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects. Apparently, this story was huge at the time but most of the people that go and see it had no idea who this guy was. One of the reasons I really liked this film was it had an actual story, its based quite strictly on the true story of Mr. Wilson and combine that with some outstanding performances by Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour-Hoffman and you've got one great film to start the year. It's no contender for Film of 2008 but it's well worth seeing.