Change Your Image
gigahoe
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Like Crazy (2011)
Like Crazy - Like f*ck!
Love is a many-splendored thing according to the song, well based on this film its actually a really annoying thing that should be taken out back and given a good kicking. This film tells the story of Anna (Felicity Jones) an English student in California studying journalism or something who claps eyes on Jacob (Anton Yelchin) in class and they start dating. Oh and by the way he's a furniture designer, that's right a furniture designer and journalist students, you hate them already don't you...no well come the end of he film you will. To get things off to a great start she writes him a little note that she sticks to his car asking him not to think she's crazy, then they go on a date and end back at hers were they write to each other on a piece of paper. And then the clincher there's a bit where they're on opposite sides of a glass door and they touch hands on either side of the glass...Seriously!!
So once the relationship is set up, thankfully it's not as clichéd and horrible all the way through, Anna's about to go back to the UK as her visa runs out for the summer but decides to stay to be with him thus invalidating it. So when she pops back to the UK for a wedding and then tries to get back into the US on a tourist visa they send her packing. Honestly, who'd have thought it, the US passport control being strict...derrr!
So that's probably the first third of the film done, now for act two the protagonists are on either side of the pond and you know what it's hard to keep a relationship going with 9 odd hours time difference so there's lots of missed calls and both of them looking into the middle distance. Even though both of them stray they obviously hold a candle for the other and there are a few jaunts in London from Jacob but it's not the same as being with Anna full time and they continue to drift apart and then come back together on the memory of that summer etc etc.
There's one good scene in the film involving a proposal (I won't say who) and Anna's parents (played rather well by Oliver Muirhead and Alex Kingston) that's genuinely funny and awkward but that's it really. The only other praise I'll give it is that it doesn't bottle the ending and Jennifer Lawrence is gorgeous but has sweet FA to do (seriously about four lines).
Other annoyances are that for a furniture designer he appears to have only produced one design for a chair in the three year period of the film and also that despite climbing up the ladder at some Glamour style magazine Anna seems happy to drop that job at a moment's notice (I'm obviously too much of a feminist). Please don't go to watch it to find your own worst moments!
Isle of Dogs (2010)
So bad...it's bad
I saw this film at Frightfest 2010 in London and rather embarrassingly I was sitting in the same row as the director and some of the stars. I say embarrassing as there are quite a lot of laughs in this film, but most are unintentional. Small things like a firedoor sign (clearly filmed in a hotel rather than a country house) to a suitcase 'full' of money that appears to have about £200 at most in it.
Unfortunately it's not just the small things that are laughable in this film. The characters are stereotypical (bumbling police, foul mouthed wisecracking boss, hit-man with a heart), the dialogue is trying to be genuine/gritty whilst also amusing and fails with both, and there are some glaring plot holes. There are several scenes that are way too long and talky whilst the music booms over the top trying to add gravitas to characters going over the same points again and again.
The acting isn't too bad on the whole, the major characters are a gang boss, his wife and her lover who's also a hit-man for said boss. The boss puts in a decent performance that owes a lot to Ben Kinglsey in 'Sexy Beast' and Vinnie Jones from Guy Ritchie films, that said he clearly had fun with it and that comes across. The Wife is a Czech actress who's main functions are to walk around pouting and having some rough and tumble with various protagonists both of which she does fine. The hit-man performance is very strange though. Ed Hogg seems to go from maniacal to breaking down crying in every scene in the most uneven performance I've ever seen. Ed is the only actor I recognised from another film having seen 'Bunny and the Bull' in which I thought he was very good, which just makes his performance even more confusing and ultimate I just think he was miscast also being too slight and having too weak a voice for the role.
In the end the film wants to be a cross between a Guy Ritchie film, Severance and Sexy Beast but fails to be as fun or interesting as any of them. I doubt there will be any major release of this film, but there are laughs to be had (however unintentional) but I certainly wouldn't pay for them!
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Very Boring waste of a franchise
I have to admit that I don't normally like Hollywood blockbuster movies but there are some notable exceptions, Star Wars, Jurrasic Park, LOTR and the original POTC. The reason that I liked all these films was because they were entertaining in a non-patronising way, fun, funny in parts and grand.
Yet POTC 2 is none of those things, the comedy all comes from Johnny Depp being a shifty Pirate (more exaggerated from his fantastic role in the first film) and normally involves him walking funny! All of the set pieces were too long, non sensical and had little if anything to do with the storyline. And what a storyline it is. I struggled to tell what was really going on for most of the film but perhaps that was because I was fighting for consciousness most of the time.
The first film felt like some people wanted to make a great Pirate movie whereas this one is purely a money-spinner with little point other than to get to the 3rd film (Matrix anyone?!). I'm at odds whether to see the 3rd one when it comes out(I never saw Matrix 3).
Corpse Bride (2005)
Nothing on Nightmare Before Christmas
I think that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are very talented and I have an will always be interested in any film that either does. This film however doesn't show either of them at their best. The visuals are stunning and are reminiscent of Monty Python and Nightmare Before Christmas, but you're still left wanting more. The problem that I see it is that there are not enough of the dead parts. The land of the dead in both Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride are great fun, beautiful and show the macabre talents of Tim Burton off at his best. Unfortunately in Corpse Bride the story is hardly there and suffers for it. If Tim and Johnny weren't the people they are you could excuse this as a way of making a it of quick cash, however it just ends up as a nice idea that just doesn't come off. Perhaps the problem was that I loved Nightmare Before Christmas and expected too much from this film. Unfortunately though the story wasn't great and I actually fell asleep through boredom towards the end. Whatever the film is this isn't a good thing.
The Constant Gardener (2005)
Fiennes is excellent, but film is poor
This film was disappointing. The cast and Director lead me to believe that this would be a good film, but there were some flaws that made it hard to enjoy. Firstly whether-or-not Weisz is any good her character is plain annoying, I know that she was doing a lot of good work etc but I was pleased when she was out of the film. When the film changes from a (supposed) love story to a Bourne Identity-esquire cat-and-mouse film it picks up but this is done at a bad time. The main reason for this is that you're thinking that she has cheated on him and therefore have little sympathy. Even when you realise that she hasn't it's too far down the line and I really couldn't care. Fiennes on the other hand is excellent. He plays the traditional English guy much like Hugh Grant but without all the umms & ahhs. The Camera-work is also annoying and borrows a lot again from the Bourne Identity. All the shaky and out of focus stuff gets annoying and adds nothing to the film. This film wasn't a complete waste of time and is worth seeing for Fiennes performance alone but overall quite boring at the beginning and then a poor mans Bourne film.