Blockbusters and Films
Movies and Cinema

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Hitchcock

The legendary director Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs) and his wife, Alma Reville (Helen Mirren, The Queen) are shunned by Hitch's production company and so they move into self-financing following the success of North by Northwest in an attempt to bring the audience a "nasty piece of work." That nasty piece of work is the iconic and insurmountably influential Psycho.

From this film I really took one positive and one not so. The great thing about it, for me and for which I've seen it, in other places criticized was the mentioning, but not dwelling on, the areas of the story that everyone knows so well. There's about thirty seconds at the beginning where Hitch sits about wondering what to do before Robert Bloch's manuscript shows up. The discussion of when to kill off Mrs Janet Leigh (Scarlett Johannson, Avengers Assemble) was prompt, well managed and over some scrumptious toast.

This left range for something else to go on, which in itself was probably a good thing, but didn't totally work for the movie. While all the preparation and production of Psycho was going in the background, the story we were really getting was that of a breaking relationship between the genius behind so many great pieces of cinema, and her husband who takes all the credit. The negative aspect to was in the way it reminded me of The Iron Lady. It seemed like the story of Alma and Hitch could have been told, and be interesting without being those two particular characters. All-in-all, it just about pulled it off.

The truly unappealing quality to this film was the performances. With the cast it contained, this film promised some loving and well-crafted portrayals and delivered caricatured silliness. I wasn't as impressed by Sir Anthony as everyone else, and that's a problem in a film about such a big character. I'd far rather have seen Toby Jones (The Girl).

If you were excited about it coming out, or you showed some general interest in it, I'd recommend you go and tell me if I'm wrong or not.


A Good Day to Die Hard

Die Hard - one of the most iconic action movies of all time.
Die Hard with a Vengeance - oh, so good and so fun.
Live Free or Die Hard - all the fun, not quite as well made, but still pretty damn good.
A Good Day to Die Hard - well, coming after what has passed, it's really no good.

The more I think about it, the less I like this film.

Mr. John McLean (Bruce "Yippee Ki Yay Melon-Farmer" Willis, Die Hard) is back, is old and is the father of super spy John "Jack" McLean Jr. (Jai Courtney, Jack Reacher). This father and son go on a civilian massacring, (oh yeah, and some bad guys too) family bonding session in Russia. In the finale we see side-by-side slaughter in the remains of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

It's a brief, if comprehensive plot summary, 'cause this has none of the style, smarts or story of its predecessors. Really, Live Free or Die Hard is pretty damn vacuous to begin with. It makes up with it by being great fun to watch; the same cannot, in anyway, be said for A Good Day. I didn't totally hate it while I watched it, but like a Flag Hippo it was only when I let my head hit the pillow that the thought hit me, "What the fuck did I just watch?"

Other than that, the film has no time for nuance, for fore or after thought, it seemed a very Smash and Grab affair. With lots of Smash, Bang, Whollop and a great big grab of whatever you pay to get in.


Correct me if I'm wrong, despite the fact it may be my favourite tag-line ever, "Yippee Ki Yay Mother Russia" the line isn't contained in the film! Boo to 12A.