Movie Review - Cowboys and Aliens, what the heck could that be about ?
There are certain criteria that Mrs Stuffy looks for when selecting a film that she thinks she will enjoy, for a start it helps if it has Daniel Craig in it, that's it really, she's not too bothered about the artistic lineage of the director, the quality of the remaining cast, the writing, direction or production. She is pretty definitive about the presence of Daniel Craig, so she enjoyed this, as long as Daniel Craig was on-screen. She didn't like the aliens which were, to be honest pretty scary, very yucky and surprisingly bad, (as galaxy-crossing alien warriors with awesome super weapons tend to be) at killing plucky earthlings.
The film started well for me, a bit of mystery (you have to imagine you haven't seen the trailer, or read the title come to that) some atmospheric cowboy stuff, classic western main street hero confrontation, etched deep in our psyche from High Noon, through the Magnificent Seven, everything Sergio Leone did, Silverado and the Outlaw Josie Wales. Credit to John Favreau, (the director) for a very nicely shot movie, the scenery and the action scenes were excellent and the little characterisation he squeezed into the limited time between the all-action alien mayhem was well, but briefly, done. Sam Rockwell deserves an honourable mention and it would have been nice to see Harrison Ford and the exalted Daniel spending more screen time together. It would also have been nice to see Walton Goggins, (great name, fine actor), get a bigger part.
Actors who can make you believe in them are rare and this cast list had many of them, however, this movie was full of incomplete storylines, ludicrous concepts and there were multiple hole-riddled plots to expound so, inevitably, too little time for exploring the people and their stories.
It sounds simple, cowboys versus aliens, "two genres, two sets of conventions, let's mash them up " but if there is one thing that I came away from this film with it's that there were too many different threads to keep track of, the Olivia Wilde character was (obviously very, very attractive) but poorly explained, despite a lot of clues, they didn't add up, I'm not sure about the humming bird, I still don't understand what the aliens were really after, gold ? scouting for an invasion? cow-tipping? fresh bipedal snack items?
Who can tell... Not me and not Mrs Stuffy, obviously.
Good things, well (Daniel Craig apparently) and despite the telegraphed inevitability of each scary moment they still managed to make Mrs S jump each time, so precious little snoozing occurred.
And for me, an entertaining romp, not a coherent story but some ok action, a wasted first-class cast, a little humour, (could have done with more) but let's face it, if you go to see a film called Cowboys and Aliens with high expectations you're asking to be let down.
I had set a lower bar and this was, by no means, a disappointment.
A hybrid haiku
After aeons of
conquest, the aliens
never learnt to shoot?
Labels: oakwood stuffy 'cowboys and aliens' daniel craig harrison ford olivia wilde movie review haiku stvtomas
Movie Review - Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Well if you'd ever wondered what possible, albeit improbable, sequence of events could have lead to an Earth populated by horse-riding, Roman-inspired, English-speaking, tactically-aware chimpanzees and gorillas, look no further.
Proposing tha
t a combination of greed, compassion, corporate callousness, cruelty and carelessness combine to deliver a world-changing situation to our tree-dwelling kin this is an interesting and deeply enjoyable movie.
The phrase which kept leaping into my mind as I watched the excellent Andy Serkis playing Caeser the lead simian was 'a very human film' not in a soppy way but nicely contrasting many of the aspects of both good and bad of our species but then holding up a chimp-shaped mirror to those same strengths and weaknesses.
There is no doubt that the lessons and tricks that Serkis and the CGI team learned with Gollum and King Kong are beautifully played back in this film, no-one overacts, the performances, both ape and human, (John Lithgow and David Oyelowo deserve mention and Frieda Pinto is very pretty) are very nicely judged and the pace is ideal. The storyline, whilst well structured and (as with all prequels) predictable delivers a few surprises and some feelgood and feelbad moments.
I was originally in two minds about this movie, but I'm glad that both Mrs Stuffy and I chose to go, we are, unusually, as one on this, damn fine film, very much worth the trip, the tickets and the fact that it was my turn to sit next to the wierdo.
An heroic haiku, a poem of primates...?
Apes taking over?
You almost feel they deserve
The chance to have a go
Labels: oakwood stuffy 'rise of planet of the apes' serkis pinto lithgow movie review haiku stvtoma
Movie Review - Captain America, he's no Captain Jack Sparrow but engaging nonetheless
The linking together of comic book hero movies continues apace with the latest in the Marvel franchise the story of the original Avenger, played by a digitally skinnifieded (then digitally musclified) Chris Evans (he was the most rubbishy one in the rubbishy Fantastic four).
As with the recent X-men movie one of the most attractive things about this film is the representation of the style, the look, of the era and this movie captured the 1930's feel very nicely.
It's a silly film, of course, but very well made and doesn't worry too much about believability, focusing instead on a series of episodes of frantic comic book action interspersed with vignettes of folksy moralising. Chris Evans is likeable but undemanding, Stanley Tucci (who I always thought deserved an oscar for Julie and Julia) briefly impresses as the good (and wryly amusing), Doktor and Hugo Weaving makes an impressive baddy but never really convinces one that the good guy won't win in the end.
Nicely played end sequence by the way with (Samuel L Jackson) which sets up the scenario for Avengers film which will hit the screens next year.
Would you like a hell-bound haiku?
Power corrupts so
Give it to the nice chap,
not a nasty nazi
Labels: oakwood stuffy review movie captain america marvel avengers haiku
