DancefloorTerrorist Reviews

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)

Bird! Bird! Bird!

[10/10 · 10 March 2008]

Went to a UK preview tonight and this completely took me by surprise. A brilliant fantasy adventure which retains it's dignity and doesn't sell out for a cute Disney style box office attack.

The issues in it were quite good and realistic and it wasn't necessarily 'happy ever after' in the end. The scripting and the style of the piece reminded me of 'The Princess Bride'- although this is more of an action adventure than a comedy.

Well worth seeing, and there doesn't seem to have been much 'hollywood tailoring' such as there was with the Golden compass and Narnia...

As to the monsters / fairies- they were very well done indeed, quite believable considering they were computer generated.

Well worth seeing, but I have the feeling it won't get as much publicity as the usual run of the mill children's movie...

Why do I keep saying children's movie when I am 34?

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Absolutely Dire and almost painful to watch

[1/10 · 6 March 2008]

The Other Boleyn Girl **SPOILER** Throughout the film there were a few sniggers at some of the incredibly bad scripting (Obviously geared towards the American market- as there were regular bits were the evil Uncle would describe exactly what was going on or would happen in the future and the historical inaccuracies were pretty major). Some of it was cringeworthy in just how bad it was (especially the final scene with the slow fade to black- a picture of a red headed girl and a subtitle explaining how 'Elizabeth would go on to rule England for 40 years ' (or whatever- I didn't read it properly as I was in such a rush to leave).

I suppose the actors did what they could with a terrible script and worse directing (scarlett Johansen wasn't as bad as reviews had led me to believe and Natalie Portman was perhaps quite good, though to be honest no-one came out of it well. Eric Bana didn't really have a lot to work with either- pity because I had a high regard for him after the castle and the nugget). The cinematography was also terrible with the majority of the scenes being very poorly focused- It wasn't soft focus or pull focus, it was just rubbish and very poorly done. In fact it was on a par with the script as one of the worst things about the movie.

Some of the comments I heard when exiting the theatre mirrored my thoughts but used a few more expletives...

Unfortunately I would neither recommend it to a friend or my most feared enemy.

I am sorry to say that the only thing I can say in it's defence was that 'the costumes were quite well done' but even they were not exceptional...

I was happy when it was over (but would have been happier if I'd seen the scriptwriter and the director get executed rather than the boleyn family).

Did I mention how rubbish the cinematography and the script were?

Can I mention it again?