Showing posts with label film review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film review. Show all posts

February 06, 2013

Film Review: Django Unchained

This time last week, some friends and I decided to go on a little trip a la cinema to see Django Unchained. I knew it was a Quentin Tarantino film and I've seen Inglorious Bastards so I thought I knew what I was letting myself in for but oh my days, there are no words to describe this film.

It's an 18 so of course there's blood and swearing but boy is there blood and swearing. In actual fact the goriness wasn't too unbearable as it gets to the point that there's so much blood spurting out everywhere that it ends up, at times, being funny. The swearing on the other hand, while I did get used to it somewhat, throughout the film, I was not prepared for the amount of times the N Bomb was dropped. Obviously, it is to be expected, that's just how it was back in those days but still, with so much stigma attached to the word now, it was a bit strange to hear it quite so much.

In contrast to all the violence and blood and what not, there was actually a surprising amount of comedy. Not a huge amount but just enough to counter balance all the bad stuff so that you didn't come out feeling morbidly depressed.

I know some people are disappointed by the fact that Leonardo Dicaprio has been snubbed again at the Oscars but in all honesty, now that I've seen the film, I can understand why. I'm not saying he was bad by any stretch of the imagination but in my opinion he was the weakest of the main four, Dicaprio, Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson. As usual, Christoph Waltz is awesome. He was one of the main reasons I wanted to see the film and he's one of the main reasons I liked the film.

On a side note, there's a scene that is entirely in German and I understood the vast majority of it without needing the subtitles! This makes me happy. It means the hours I'm spending reading and watching TV shows in German isn't a complete waste of time!

Anyways, if you don't like blood, violence and/or incessant swearing then this is not the film for you. But, if you like Tarantino's previous work, I'm sure you will love this too. I'm not sure it will get best film at the Academy Awards but I really hope Christoph Waltz gets best supporting actor and as he's already won the Golden Globe, things look promising, so fingers crossed!

January 10, 2013

Film Review: Les Misérables


I've been singing the songs from Les Miserable for years but had never had the opportunity to actually go see the show so when I found out that there was going to be a film I got very excited!

There had been mutterings of Oscar noms for the film for quite a while and positive reviews were coming through left right and centre as the film came out a good few weeks ago in the states so I had extremely high expectations. Well, on Tuesday I finally got to see it.

Boy does this film live up to expectations! It took me a little while to get used to the sort of talk-singing that links the main songs together but once I did I hardly even noticed that they never spoke. I'm so glad Tom Hooper took the decision for the actors to sing live because it really does add an amazing amount of depth to their performances.

The cast is incredible and as I expected Anne Hathaway blows it out of the water. A highlight for me was Helena Bonham-Carter and Sasha Baron Cohen, probably because they provide the much needed comic relief in the film. If I were to say there was a weaker performance I would say that it comes from Amanda Seyfried, I'm just not a huge fan of her voice but she also didn't have the best songs, or role to be honest, to work with especially compared to Fantine (Hathaway) and Eponine (Samantha Barks). She wasn't bad, she just wasn't as good as everyone else. 

There really is a reason that this film is up for so many Oscars. It made an epic start to the year for films and hopefully is a good omen for what is to come!

MeganShaelyn x