Read + Write + Report
Home | Start a blog | About Orble | FAQ | Sites | Writers | Advertise | My Orble | Login

Movie Train - FILM REVIEWS by Morgan Bell

 
Fresh critical film reviews by young Australian journalist Morgan Bell. A bight-sized opinionated analysis of popular movies and indie/art-house feature films. Explores plot, themes, characters, performances, soundtracks and film technique. Morgan Bell assesses movies in the context of what makes a successful cinema or DVD experience.

More





Movie Train

TOP TEN Best Highschool Movies

June 14th 2009 15:55
1. Jawbreaker (1999)

Starring: Rose McGowan, Rebecca Gayheart, Julie Benz, Judy Greer, Pam Grier, Marilyn Manson (cameo)

Black comedy about a kidnapping gone wrong, and how blackmail can help an unpopular girl climb the social ladder.

Courtney: "Never send a rose unless dyed black as a warning. And if one is sent to you, destroy it along with the sender. Emotionally of course. It's not like we kill people... on purpose."

Jawbreaker



2. Heathers (1988)

Starring: Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty

Black comedy about a girl who would kill to be rid of the popular girl clique.

J.D.: "I like it. It's got that what-a-cruel-world-let's-toss -ourselves-in-the-abyss type ambience."

Heathers



3. Election (1999)

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick, Chris Klein

Black comedy about the politics of student elections, and the relationships between students and teachers.

Tammy Metzler: "It's not like I'm a lesbian or anything. I'm attracted to the person. It's just that all the people I've been attracted to happen to be girls."

Election



4. Mean Girls (2004)

Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tina Fey, Lacey Chabert

Examines the cliques at highschool, and the elaborate methods of teasing and bullying that go on between girls.

Regina: "Is butter a carb?"

Mean Girls



5. Never Been Kissed (1999)

Starring: Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Molly Shannon, Jeremy Jordan, Jessica Alba, Leelee Sobieski

A nerd gets a second chance at highschool popularity when she goes undercover as a journalist to research teens.

Rob Geller: "See ya around the Cell Block, Mrs. Robinson."

Never Been Kissed



6. The Breakfast Club (1985)

Starring: Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall

Breaking down stereotypes in detention.

John Bender: "Sweets. You couldn't ignore me if you tried. So... so. Are you guys like boyfriend-girlfriend? Steady dates? Lovers? Come on, sporto, level with me. Do you slip her the hot beef injection?"

The Breakfast Club



7. Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)

Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sean Penn, Phoebe Cates, Judge Reinhold, Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz, Anthony Edwards, Forest Whittaker, Ray Walston

The seminal Cameron Crowe teen flick that launched a thousand careers.

Jeff Spicoli: "You dick!"

Fast Times At Ridgemont High







8. Ten Things I Hate About You (1999)

Starring: Heath Ledger, Joseph Godon Levitt, Julia Stiles, Alison Janney

A modern re-telling of Shakespere's "The Taming of The Shrew".

Kat Stratford: "Romantic? Hemingway? He was an abusive, alcoholic misogynist who squandered half of his life hanging around Picasso trying to nail his leftovers."

Ten Things I Hate About You



9. Clueless (1995)

Starring: Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Jeremy Sisto, Paul Rudd

A modern re-telling of Jane Austen's "Emma".

Cher: "It is one thing to spark up a doobie and get laced at parties, but it is quite another to be fried all day."

Clueless



10. Not Another Teen Movie (2001)

Starring: Chyler Leigh, Chris Evans, Jaime Pressly, Lacey Chabert, Molly Ringwald (cameo)

The ultimate spoof movie, taking off Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink, The Breakfast Club, Bring It On, She's All That, Cruel Intentions, Can't Hardly Wait, and many other predictable teen movie scenarios that have become common formulas over the last two decades.

After dismissing a girl with a hunchback, an albino girl, and siamese twins conjoined at the head as being "too easy" a challenge:

Jake: "No not Janie Briggs! Guys, she's got glasses and a ponytail! Aw, look at that, she's got paint on her overalls, what is that? Guys, there's no way she could be prom queen!"

Not Another Teen Movie







97
Vote
Comments (18)Comments (18) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


TOP 15 Sci-Fi Movies from the Last 15 Years

April 22nd 2009 01:46
Sci-fi is one of my favourite genres, and within my favourite genre I will try to narrow down some of my favourite films.

Sci-fi can examine the human condition in ways that realism cannot. When a film is set in the future, or in space, or on another planet, the scope is so broad that the formulation of hypotheticals is boundless and free. I particularly like films about artificial intelligence (robots), genetics and cloning, and reevaluating perceptions of reality.

I have enjoyed the "classic" sci-fi films like Alien, Terminator, Star Wars, Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange, Planet of The Apes, The Abyss, Short Circuit, Cocoon, and Close Encounters.

I have cringed at The Cube, Lawnmower Man, Waterworld, Logans Run, Rollerball, Transformers, and Battlefield Earth.

I can even appreciate light-hearted "entertainment" sci-fi like Galaxy Quest, Back To The Future, The Fifth Element, Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, Total Recall, and ET.

However being a child schooled in the 90s, my absolute favourites are those more serious, thought-provoking sci-fi films from my own generation. I believe sci-fi is getting better and better.

Here are my TOP 15 from the Last 15 Years:

1. Star Trek Nemesis (2002)
2. Gattaca (1997)
3. Aeon Flux (2005)
4. The Matrix (1999)
5. The Island (2005)
6. The Truman Show (1998)
7. The Final Cut (2004)
8. Vanilla Sky (2001)
9. Stargate (1994)
10. Serenity (2005)
11. Sunshine (2007)
12. Contact (1997)
13. A.I. (2001)
14. Soldier (1998)
15. Battlestar Galactica (2003)

Tom Hardy as Praetor Shinzon (Captain Picard's clone) in Star Trek Nemesis











151
Vote
Comments (38)Comments (38) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


Index

February 16th 2009 13:25
Page under construction
24
Vote
Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


REVIEW: Australia

December 7th 2008 18:28
very disappointing . . .

Directed & Written: Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet)

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson, Ben Mendelsohn, Barry Otto, John Jarrett, Brandon Walters, David Gulpilil, David Ngoombujarra

I was determined to give Baz Luhrmann's Australia a fair go. I paid my money and I watched it beginning to end and tried to evaluate the film project on its merits. I am not a fan of Baz Luhrmann's previous work but i can appreciate why other people are. His talent is making slick vibrant productions, big gay music-filled extravaganzas, with rich cohesive visuals that arise from evenly-applied motifs. Unfortunately when it comes to Australia, Luhrmann fails to deliver even this - his trademark - and instead presents us with an extremely sloppy, badly edited shambles.

Dull story-line aside, Australia's main problem is its lack of aesthetic continuity. Not something you would generally expect from a Luhrman flick. It is hard to believe that this film is the result of a $130 million budget, when the vast majority of it appears to be filmed in front of green-screens at Fox Studios. So much for the reports of how gruelling the actors found working in the outback, they were CGI-ed into nearly every scene. I had also heard reports about how fantastic all the droving scenes were, when really they consisted of a CGI heard of cattle skittling along th edge of a steep cliff (in the outback plains?) in scenes reminiscent of the "jeeps in the jungle" car chase from the most recent Indiana Jones.




I just dont understand? Why bother taking a massive cast and crew out to our unique red dusty outback, to film a story about the magic of nature, if you are eventually just going to go the cheap and nasty cut-n-paste route. Lets just superimpose Nicole and Hugh's faces into this background we filmed earlier. Oh and heres an aerial shot we obviously spent alot of money on, but it doesnt quite fit in with the rest of the movie, so lets just do a random montage of aerial shots, oh and lets superimpose an aborigine doing a traditional dance onto one of the cliff faces, might as well make a tourist brochure with all this left-over footage.

The whole film feels very thrown together. It seems like Baz Luhrmann ran over deadline and got the work-experience girl to do the final edit. Oh it simply must be 3 hours long because it is a Luhrmann production, do not waste a single frame of footage! Where on earth is the continuity guy?

See it for Hugh Jackman, he is looking good, and sounding good too, I think he developed an extra-deep voice for the stereotypical manly role. He looks a bit like Outback Jack . . . perfectly blow-dried hair and perfectly snug fitted clothes . . . yet somehow his manicured appearance is the least questionable aspect of the whole movie.

Nicole Kidman and High Jackman in Australia


189
Vote
Comments (30)Comments (30) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


REVIEW: Charlie Wilson's War

November 9th 2008 17:29
Directed: Mike Nichols (Closer, Angels In America, Primary Colours, The Birdcage, Regarding Henry, Postcards From The Edge, The Graduate)

Written: Aaron Sorkin (The American President, A Few Good Men, TVs The West Wing) based on the book by George Crile

Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

Charlie Wilson's War is a political drama about the real life events the happened in the 1980s where the USA covertly funded arms for Afghanistan in order to defeat the Soviets both on the ground and in the Cold War. In some respects this film reminded me of Lions For Lambs, in that the message is very muddled. This is perhaps an accurate representation of what the average American feels about their own national image when it comes to the results CIA meddling in the Middle East . . . uneasy and muddled.

Charlie Wilson (Hanks) is a Texas congressman who is persuaded by a rich conservative socialite, Joanne Herring (Roberts) to make the plight of the Afghani people his pet project. The CIA sends him Gust Avrakotos (Hoffman) and together they negotiate secretly with key players in Pakistan and Israel and rally support domestically for extra funding. This is a film that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. No matter how lovable Hanks is or how funny Hoffman is, you know it is based on a true story, and you know that these underhand dealings eventually led to Taliban filling a power vacuum that the US helped create.

This film has been written as a quirky comedy about a "victory". The sub-heading of the book it was based on was "The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History". But its not a feel-good tale. It is really the story of how the USA avoided turning a Cold War into a real war by not drawing attention to themselves - they did it at the expense of the Afghani people. This is the story of how the USA used the Afghani people as pawns in their pissing match with the USSR and then abondoned them at a time where they needed to rebuild after all the death and destruction.

Charlie Wilson: "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the endgame."

Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Charlie Wilsons War


TRAILER FOR CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR:





92
Vote
Comments (7)Comments (7) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


REVIEW: The Happening

November 4th 2008 11:32
OK so now that my laughter has subsided . . .

Directed & Written: M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable, The Village)

Starring: Mark Wahlberg (The Departed, Boogie Nights), Zooey Deschanel (Eulogy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), John Leguizamo (Moulin Rouge, Romeo & Juliet), Betty Buckley (TVs Eight Is Enough, Carrie, singer on Broadway)


We're making a B movie. If the themes of the movie stick with you then great, but we're not going to put that in front of the movie. We're going to have a lot of fun. It's a paranoia movie and we just need to pound away at it. That's our job. So I was really clear about that.

M. Night Shyamalan

I got this very scary idea for a movie, and that's The Happening.
It's kind of like [Alfred Hitchcock's] Birds -- it has that feeling to it, where people are trapped in an area where something bizarre is happening.

M. Night Shyamalan


"The Happening" could quite possibly be the most unintentionally funny movie ever made. Or did M. Night Shyamalan do it intentionally? Is the man in on the joke? Or are we laughing at him? It's a tough call because Shyamalan's reputation for the corny and righteous has preceded him. Had this been a film made by anyone other than Shayamalan, it would be considered a masterpiece parody of Shyamalan!

The film has a similar feel to other "genre homage" movies that have been released lately. Tarantino replicating 70s sexploitation and car-chase films with "Death Proof" (2007), or comedies like Peyton Reed's "Down With Love" (2003) nodding their head to old Doris Day movies from the 60s. If Shyamalan was anyone other than Shyamalan you might think this is a really clever head nod to 50s disaster films. The disaster is completely ridiculous and the characters respond in irrational panic. Funny right? But is it supposed to be?

Mark Wahlberg seems like an actor with a good sense of humour. His over-exaggerated facial expressions and deadpan delivery of absurd dialogue make you think he must be in on the joke. Zooey Deschanel is a comic actress, she looks stunned throughout the film, its not dramatic acting, it looks like a comedian doing a spoof skit. Is it possible that all the actors were having a private joke behind Shyamalan's back?

This movie reminds me of a Stephen King book I started reading called "Cell". I ended up putting it down because I felt it was too heavy-handed an unrealistic. Radio waves from cell phones were causing people to fly into unprovoked rages and murder people. King is vocally proud of the fact that he has never owned a cell phone, and in this context it just seemed like a technophobe grinding their axe about a global trend they had not kept up with. The themes in "Cell" and "The Happening" are similar in that the villain is invisible, but Im at a loss to understand what axe (if any) Shyamalan is trying to grind!

If I give Shyamalan the benefit of the doubt I could assume that he is poking fun at the hysteria created by the 1938 Orson Welles radio play War Of The Worlds, or the perpetual paranoia of baby boomers with their doomsday clock waiting for a nuclear bombs to be dropped during the cold war. Nuclear waste and terrorism are mentioned in "The Happening" both as primary causes of poisoning and as explanations as to why the vegetation of New England would mutate to kill us out of self-preservation. If I had any faith in Shyamalan I might think this was an incredibly insightful element of the film, I might think he was commenting on the human tendancy to jump to conclusions and expect the worst . . .

But do I have any faith?

Not really - the themes of family and togetherness and love conquering all are still there as trademark Shyamalan. There is the niggling suggestion that humans will bring an armageddon of biblical proportions if we dont improve our morality and treat our earth and our fellow man better. Whether it is birds, or killer tomatoes, or locusts, or airborn toxins from angry plants, it is clear that Shyamalan intends to use this film as a warning about tampering with nature. Maybe that is his axe?

"The Happening" will go down in history as a cult film because it is incredibly funny, full stop. It is also contains genuinely frightening suspense scenes that take place in creepy derelict farmhouses and abandoned country roads. Shyamalan is amazing at framing scenes (or is that his cinematographer Tak Fujimoto?) and lighting to create the maximum amount of tension and terror - there is perhaps noone scarier. But as a writer he is practically schitzophrenic and unable to focus on any one theme. He wants to tell you everything all at once and the result is just bizarre. Funny, but bizarre! Somehow he has fluked a comedy, but somehow I dont we are laughing at the bits he thought we would!

CLICKHERE for my companion post "The Happening: learn and laugh"

The Happening








87
Vote
Comments (15)Comments (15) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


The Happening: learn and laugh

October 31st 2008 17:08
I will post a full review on the film "The Happening" in coming days. It was a strange movie.

In the meantime, if you have seen the film I guarentee you will pee your pants laughing at the following list!

The users on IMDB started a thread entitled "100 Things I Learned From 'The Happening' SPOILERS" - I have plucked a list of the really funny ones from their suggestions.

I got so carried away with reading the thread and laughing hysterically that I temporarily forgot what I was going to write about it myself! It is insanely funny! Please enjoy my highlights!

Where To Run
If your wife won't answer the phone, leave your daughter and go look for her. How hard can it be to find one person in Princeton when you have no idea where in town she is?
A botanist who thinks that plants are behind the mass suicides thinks its a good idea to rush back to his greenhouse to get hot dogs
Vast amounts of airborne toxins don't sink into the ground and pollute ground-water.
Plants and huge toxic winds pay attention to state lines
Make sure that when after hearing a girl that you told on the phone to get away from the tree and then she kills herself for all to hear (because it is the plants) to go and sit in remorse in the middle of a bunch of weeds on the side of the road.
If safety is ninety miles away and you are in a car, don't drive past the dead bodies, walk through a field.
When you need to be in smaller groups make sure that you let two strange kids hang with you. You will probably need them to take a bullet for you.
Wind exists only in small, isolated patches. With determination, one may be able to run ahead of it.

The Lion
Lions now bring down prey by biting their arms off.
If you want to get mauled to death by a lion, make friends with it first.
When a lion sniffs your arm it will fall off
A trained lion will eat you for no reason as soon as you feel suicidal

The Jeep
Besides a little tear in the canopy, canvass-topped Jeeps are otherwise airtight.
Ramming a jeep into a tree will kill everyone in the back seat too.

The Model Home
Even if a glass is filled with coloured plastic and you reference that fact later in the scene you should still pretend to drink from it.
Model homes have working plumbing.

The First Psycho House
If trees are the killers please play around with them, using the swing.
If someone isn't sure whether or not you are evil, just sing "Black Water" by The Doobie Brothers.
If you are afraid of the toxic air, board up your house and leave some space in the windows in case you wanna be seen wandering through the house and shoot somebody. And open your door to do so as well.
If armed men barricade themselves in their home and refuse to feed you, kick the door and taunt them until they shoot you.
If a crazy man shoots the two kids, don't run, shake them and make sure they're dead.
After a black kid gets shot to death, tell him "we're going to get out of this nightmare." Maybe, he'll respond!

The Second Psycho House
Old hermits tend to have large houses with creepy-looking dolls sleeping on their guest beds.
Speaking through 100 feet of underground pipe sounds roughly equivalent to talking on a cell phone.
Sucidal people have the urge to walk backwards a bit before killing themselves
Betty Buckley has bionic ears.
If you invite guests into your home and you feel they are going to kill you in your sleep because they are whispering, don't kick them out or ask them to leave. Go to sleep and hope you wake up the next morning
Old women can magically become dolls. (Mark Whalberg, looking for the old lady, walks into a room and doesn't find her, but continues to head for a porcelain doll on the bed and say "Mrs. Jones?")

Suicide
Toxins can help you keep coherent enough to set up ladders and hang your self from trees.
Apparently losing the self preservation part of the brain means that you actively seek out amusing ways to kill yourself, rather than just giving up and lying down
Intoxicated humans always suicide in the most complicated and hard way. Why just bash your head on the ground, when you can climb ladder, find the good length of rope and hang yourself?
When the self-preservation mode is switched off in your brain, the ability to feel pain goes away as well.
Tractor mowers can cut through anything!
When trying to kill yourself, smashing your head off one wall won't suffice. Instead bang your head continually against various walls and windows ensuring you well ventilate the house.
When you decide to commit suicide by walking in a toxic zone, just to meet your husband, be sure to bring with you the girl you are supposed to protect.
Army privates carry guns with lots of bullets in them.

Randomly Funny
If you want to look for a child sleeping in the car, don't look through the window, open the door.
If you are a high school science teacher and a male student isn't paying attention, it is best to make a homoerotic statement in an effeminate voice and no one in class will mind.
When your daughter is about to commit suicide over the phone, put her on speaker phone for everyone to enjoy.
If a girl finds a radio hanging on a fence, call the man in the relationship over to turn it on and find a working station. Girls are too stupid to turn on radios. Whatever you do, don’t take the radio with you!
When the people on your backseat pretend to have taken the wrong route so that the little child won´t be scared, make sure you mention that it was actually corpses lying on the street so that the child is well-informed.
Boom Mics can be actors too.

The Happening





90
Vote
Comments (6)Comments (6) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


REVIEW: The Duchess

October 29th 2008 10:37
Directed: Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy)

Written: Jeffrey Hatcher (Stage Beauty), Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy), Anders Thomas Jensen - based on the book by Amanda Foreman

Starring: Keira Knightley (Atonement, Bend It Like Beckham), Ralph Fiennes (The Constant Gardner, The English Patient), Hayley Atwell (Brideshead Revisited), Dominic Cooper (Mamma Mia), Simon McBurney (The Golden Compass, Friends With Money)

Ralph Fiennes may be the most despicable character you see at the cinema this year. His portrayal of The Duke makes you want to stab him with a butter knife. He is the much older un-loving husband of Georgiana Spencer Cavendish (Knightley). He is cold and selfish, treating Georgiana merely as breeding stock and essentially making her a prisoner in her own home. The Duke is not overtly evil, he is just a product of his times, but he entraps Georgiana in a painful marriage under the guise of promised love and then emotionally abandons her.

The Duchess is based on the true story of the Duchess of Devonshire. She married The Duke at age 17 and became an eccentric and influential figure in English politics, fashion, gambling and social events. Georgiana led a scandalous life around the 1770s. Her husband humiliated her by keeping a mistress in her home who he much preferred. She was something of an "un-shackled slave", used to produce a male heir and forced to stay in the marriage for threat of being severed from her children and financially and socially ruined.

Dominic Cooper and Keira Knightley in The Duchess


This film is brilliant and Keira Knightly is superb in it. She captures the naivety of youth and the pain of a woman scorned. Her character is disrespected and dishonoured in so many ways yet she is able to summon incredible strength and resignation. This is the story of jealousy, envy, isolation and neglect. Knightly is convincingly maternal and protective, and this really is a film about mothers and the lengths they had to go to in a time when they had no more rights than cattle.

The Duchess is beautifully executed, with the most lavish of costumes and wigs. The supporting cast all have a genuinely sweet dynamic with Georgiana, including Lady Bess Foster (Atwell), Earl Charles Grey (Cooper), and Charles James Fox (McBurney). The biggest tragedy in this story is that due to the lack of wealth distribution the people who cared for Georgiana had to sit back and silently watch while The Duke snuffed out her every happiness and freedom.

Keira Knightley and Haley Atwell (Bess) in The Duchess


Princess Diana and Fergie the Duchess of York are both descendants of Georgiana and many critics are drawing parallels between the lives and mariiages of these women. This "breeding stock" perception of women still exists among royals and aristocrats with their arranged marriages and nobel blood etc, but the big difference is that power and permissions that come with being recognised and supported by the law.

This film is very well done and successfully stirs many emotions of sadness, pity, and frustration, however the feelings that will stay with you long after you leave the cinema are anger at the way women used to be treated, and gratitude for how much things have changed.






132
Vote
Comments (11)Comments (11) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


REVIEW: Iron Man

October 22nd 2008 12:30
Directed: Jon Favreau (Elf, Zathura, Made)

Written: Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby (Children of Men), Art Marcum, Matt Holloway


Starring: Robert Downey Jr (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Gothika, Wonder Boys), Gwyneth Paltrow (Running With Scissors, Sliding Doors, Emma), Terrence Howard, (Crash, The Brave One), Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, The Vanishing), Faran Tahir (The Jungle Book, Charlie Wilsons War)

What a fantastic super-hero action film!
I loved it - great concept, great script, great cast - whats not to love!

Tony Stark (Downey Jr) is the wiz kid who grew up and took over his fathers weapons manufacturing business. The thing is he never really grew up, he got older but he is basically just living the high life, wining and dining women, but shirking all responsibilty when it come to the consequences of the products he distributes. When Stark is capturer by a terrorist (Tahir) in the middle east his eyes are opened to the destruction his company is facilitating and he decides his talents would be better employed helping people.

Stark is such a fantastic character, hes part Batman, and part MacGyver, but the most appealing part is Robert Downey Jr himself. He has injected a huge slice of his own personality into this role is a cheeky and charming genius!

Gwyneth Paltrow does a nice job as Stark's personal assistant Pepper. Her character is prim and proper but also intelligent and capable. Paltrow and Downey Jr have a pleasing chemistry and look like they are having alot of fun with each other. Stark also has a great relationship with his computers, one of them a mainframe (voiced by Paul Bettany), and the other a robotic-arm helper who aids him in his workshop and commicates through amazingly human-esque gestures and "expressions" for such a rudimentary machine. Stark is lord of the gadgets and Pepper is sensible and grounding.

Iron Man is set modern day in the real world, and the scenes in the middle east are at times quite grim in their realism. There are important and relevant themes about the ethics of being and arms dealer and developing technology designed to kill. Stark is a real sort of guy, he is flawed and troubled and he makes mistakes. This is one of the most enjoyable super-hero genre films to come out of the recent flood of mediocrity - dont miss it!

Terrence Howard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr, and Jeff Bridges in Iron Man (2008)


Faran Tahir as the terrorist in Iron Man (2008)





99
Vote
Comments (4)Comments (4) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


REVIEW: Transformers

October 17th 2008 12:45
Directed: Michael Bay (The Island, Bad Boys, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon)

Written: Roberto Orci & Alex Kutzman (The Island), John Rogers (Catwoman, The Core)

Starring: Shia LaBeouf (Eagle Eye, Disturbia, Bobby), Megan Fox (How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen), Jon Voight (National Treasure, Holes), John Turturro (Secret Window, O Brother, Where Art Thou), Bernie Mac (Charlies Angels: Full Throttle, Guess Who)

I used to watch the Transformers animated TV series as a kid in the 80s, it was never fantastic but it had a really unique style - a heightened sense of drama like Astro Boy or The Mysterious Cities of Gold or Belle & Sebatian - lots of close-ups of shocked or pained expressions, bulging eyes etc. The robots were the stars and the show was about their lives and adventures.

I thought this live action adaption of Transformers might pay homage to the style of the original series a bit and bring back some old memories, but alas no. This film is just boring, its not even slightly stylised, the transformers show no distinct personalities, theres no humour, and it is overly focussed on humans. For the first half it seems like a vehicle for a series of shots of Megan Fox's midriff (a women who would look better with a bag over her head and looks waaaay too old to be playing a teenager), and the second half didnt even hold my attention it was so dull.

Overall I found this film extremely disappointing and un-interesting! It seemed more like the concept for Nightrider than for the camp classic Transformers. I wouldnt recommend Transformers (2007) at all!

Megan Fox bending over into an engine in Transformers


Heres a clip from the animated TV series:






Megan Fox looking ugly


And heres all the Megan Fox scenes, observe the bad acting, lack or chemistry, frozen piggy face, monotone voice, and more gratuitous skin shots than a soft porn calendar:






90
Vote
Comments (4)Comments (4) Add CommentsAdd Comments
[ Link ]
Posted By: Morgan Bell - Category: No Category
   


More Posts
June 2009
1 Posts
April 2009
1 Posts
February 2009
1 Posts
Older Posts
80 Posts dating from August 2007
Email Subscription
Receive e-mail notifications of new posts on this blog:
[ View Blog Summary ] [ Create A New Post ]

Morgan Bell's Blogs

6970 Vote(s)
621 Comment(s)
66 Post(s)
4319 Vote(s)
73 Comment(s)
59 Post(s)
29094 Vote(s)
4672 Comment(s)
223 Post(s)
Moderated by Morgan Bell
Copyright © 2006 2007 2008 On Topic Media PTY LTD. All Rights Reserved. Design by Vimu.com.
On Topic Media ZPages: Sydney |  Melbourne |  Brisbane |  London |  Birmingham |  Leeds     [ Advertise ] [ Contact Us ] [ Privacy Policy ]