Movie Review: Date Night

I went to see Date Night the other day with (shock horror) a real live date. For privacy reasons we shall just call him Date#413050_ahj.

Well to me it was the perfect date movie, a romantic comedy with a bit of action thrown in, he is a Steve Carell fan, i’m a Tina Fey fan, what could be better?

I do admit that I didn’t really understand the plot very well, there was a twist in it somewhere, and I got a bit confused, which tends to happen to me when movies don’t follow a predictable straight line but I still laughed in all the right places.

I gave it four stars out of five.

Movie Review: Precious Based on the Novel Push, By Sapphire

Phew, is it even legal to have a blog title that is that long? You can’t say that I don’t push the boundaries on this blog!

I saw Precious with my dear old Nan the other day. I have to say it was full on but I really really enjoyed it. Before I went I watched an interview with Oprah about the film, and she went on about how good it was and how highly she recommended it, and I figure well she loves the kindle so she must be right about this.

It was pretty confronting in some parts, and made me feel a little uncomfortable watching it next to Nan, the swearing is pretty full on, and there is a decent amount of incest in the film. Also there is a little girl with down syndrome in the film called Mongo (and yes that is short for Mongoloid) that is sworn at and treated pretty roughly, I ended up hoping she wasn’t present during those scenes and was digitally added later.

But I guess that was the whole point of the movie, to show another side that you may not feel entirely comfortable with, as Oprah said “you might not like it, but you will appreciate it”.

I give it 4 and a half stars out of five.

Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland

I have been looking forward to seeing this movie for several months, I like Tim Burton films and I think Johnny Depp is brilliant but I left this movie yesterday feeling dissapointed.

I was hoping for something a little bit darker, a bit more Burton, but this was like…a pretty picture with nothing else really in it.

Depp was disappointing, he was just not what I was hoping for at all, and Alice was plain boring, although I guess we should be thankful as it’s rumoured that Lindsay Lohan was looking into the role.

Unfortunately, just before the movie started someone pointed out to me that Anne Hathaway has a giant mouth so that’s pretty much all I could see whenever she came on, that and her mismatched hair/eyebrows. IMDB said that Burton based the White Queen on Nigella Lawson, now I love Nigella and if I were her i’d be fairly insulted.

Overall I give it 2 stars, I’m already sick of 3D movies. It is so gimicky and pointless, next time i’m sticking with gold class.

Movie Review: My Sister’s Keeper

I have just gotten back from seeing My Sister’s Keeper and I felt like I had to blog straight away because I am just so damn disappointed! If you havn’t seen it yet and are planning to, I recommend you stop reading here.

So I was pretty excited about this one coming out, and I didn’t really see how you could stuff it up but how about switching which sister dies? Yeah thats right you heard me!

So I knew it was going to be a tear jerker, (my nan and I brought tissues) but I didn’t expect it to go on and on with the sadness. I kept expecting the sister to get killed in the car accident but she never did! There was no car accident with the lawyer, in fact the lawyer hardly appeared at all. The sister with the cancer dies and then…that’s it!

As far as I understood in the book, the sister that was suing for medical emancipation didn’t want to do it, but did because her sister asked. The emancipation was granted, but she ended up brain dead and donating her organs. Therefor each sister ultimately got what they wanted, there was closure, it was neat, it made sense.

But in the movie version, the sick sister dies, the kids grow up and get together for the dead sisters birthday every year. The end.

I quote a review from one of my review sites, RottenTomatoes.com

“When the film stays focused on the small passages of despair, the results are extraordinary. However, Cassavetes  would rather cover the erosion of Kate’s health in lurid detail and bathe “Keeper” in weepy basic cable montages (scored to cloying pop songs), seeking to extract tears at any cost. The obnoxious calculation smothers what should’ve been a pure articulation of melancholy and a potent debate of morality.”  – Dark Horizons

See, that’s just what I said.Except better.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, this isn’t the first time that a book made into a movie has disappointed me, Harry Potter springs to mind. Maybe I should stop going to see them, I particularly hate the way that the next time I read the book I won’t see the mother I first imagined, instead I will have Cameron Diaz’ (Diaz’s?) pitiful performance in my head. There are several other favourite books coming out this year, including Mao’s Last Dancer, and I heard a rumour that they are making Tomorrow When the War Began. After seeing this, i’m wondering whether it’s worth the risk.

I still maintain though that The Cat in the Hat is the best book adaptation I have ever seen. The kids watched it hundreds of times when I was a nanny and it still makes me laugh out loud.

Update: Jodi Picoult put this notice up on her website, I guess she got a little bit sick of her irate fans emailing her.

TO ALL MY FABULOUS FANS WHO’VE SEEN THE MOVIE:

Yes, I know the ending is different. Yes, I know some of you are very upset. I didn’t change it. The author has no control over the movie, and it was hard for me to accept too. However, there’s a great deal in the movie that I think is great, and I enjoyed watching it – and I hope you did too. Please don’t email me asking me why I changed the ending, or “let” Hollywood do that – it wasn’t something I had any control over.

Movie Review: Duplicity

Can I just admit right here and now that I did not GET this movie! About 15mins in I was so confused that I spent the rest of the movie trying to sort out what had happened in the first 15 minutes. Spy movies aren’t my cup of tea, not even corporate spy movies. The time line of the movie jumped around a fair bit which added to my confusion, and to be honest I prefer Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. That fact that every thing became clear at the end of the movie only added to my iritation, why should I sit through a confusing 2 hour movie only to have things become clear in the last 5 minutes. I think The Australian said it best “Despite the flaws, Duplicity provides some entertainment value, just not as much as it could — or should — have delivered.”