Sunday 7 August 2011

Saturday night at the movies

This week’s ramble through the old movie collection saw me revisit a favourite , follow the disintegration of a relationship, laugh at multiple murder and watch a great car chase whilst listening to one of the best “voice candy”!
   
The Break Up – mediocre film about the downhill spiralling of a relationship break up running out of control. The one positive thing about this film was that it caught how it is the little things (here 3 lemons) which blow up out of all proportion that kill a relationship. But otherwise it is a lightweight.
 ashramblings verdict: Lightweight watch if nothing better on  (1*)
Very Bad Things – ‘5 go killing’ – or some ‘bad things happen on the way to the altar’ – a comic turn on the murder cover up theme with Christian Slater and Cameron Diaz was strangely enjoyable
It wasn’t until I was part way through that I realised these two apparently unrelated films both had actor Jon Favreau in them – as the the husband to be in Very Bad Things, and as best buddy of the husband in The Breakup
 ashramblings verdict:  Likeable romp (2*)
Taken The Luc Besson and Robert Marc Kamal writing team with direction by Pierre Morel to deliver a satisfying thriller around the well told story of father (Liam Neeson) seeks abducted daughter (Maggie Grace)  . This got mix reviews but I liked it – Ok I’ll admit to loving Liam Neeson’s voice so I can forgive the convenient way the pipework works loose to facilitate his escape as he traces the Albanian traffickers through Paris. But that aside, the story line is credible enough to hold you through and there’s a great car chase, maybe even better than the set pieces done for Bond movies. Watch out for Famke Janssen (Jean from X Men) as the mother, and yes the actress playing the seventeen year old who one minute is an excitable spoilt child, ditzy naive teenager on the brink of womanhood is Shannon from LOST ( amazing what difference hair colouring can make for an actress!) One to put the feet up and just watch. 
 ashramblings verdict:  Good Thriller (3*)
Perfume A hypnotic movie based on Patrick Suskind’s fantastic best seller of the same name. John Hurt narrates the story of Jean Baptiste Grenouille and his search to capture the essence of being in perfume. Nice set piece character performance from Dustin Hoffman as the old dried up perfumiere Baldini and Alan Rickman as the loving vengeful father with that mixture of love and hate he portrays so well. I read the book years ago, and had forgotten how good the film is. Such a pity films cannot deliver odours as well as sounds to the viewer.
 ashramblings verdict:  Hypnotic classic (4*)

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