Gran Torino

The story centres on Walt Kowalski, a war veteran who has just lost his wife. He lives in a neighbourhood in Michigan, mostly occupied by asians. His relationships with his relatives aren't the best, and the patriotism and prejudice he holds against anyone not caucasian isolates him from the community. That is until his next door neighbours befriend him, and he saves Thao, a Hmong teenager, from joining his cousins gang. They form a unique friendship, along with Sue, Thao's sister. But as Thao's cousins gang become more violent, Walt realises he has to do something to save his friends.

This was a great film, I loved Clint Eastwood as Walt. He was grumpy, angry, yet he became endearing, and funny. His relationship with Thao was like father and son, which was strange since he wasn't even close to his own family. He would call his neighbours every rascist word he could think of and they don't even bat an eyelid. This was the last film Clint Eastwood said he would act in, and he gave a fine performance.

No Country for Old Men

This film is essentially about a game of cat and mouse. Llewelyn Moss is hunting in the desert and stumbles upon a murder scene. One man is alive who he leaves in the truck, and he finds drugs in the back. A bit further from the brutal scene he finds the man who got away with the money, and takes it for himself. That night, feeling guilty, he takes some water back to the desert to give to the man he found. He is soon discovered by a couple of men who chase him away.

Anton Chigurh is a hitman chosen to find Moss and retrieve the money. He pursuits Moss, killing anyone that stands in his way. He shows no emotion, its as if he is completely detached to what he is doing. He follows Moss with a transponder that has been planted amongst the money, which Moss eventually finds and removes. The cat and mouse chase explodes towards the end of the film, and then slows down to a stop.

The film was originally a book, it would be interesting to see if it stayed true to it. It was a tense film, building up slowly. Javier Bardem as Chiguhr was scary, evil, and showed no remorse. He was most definitely the most interesting character.

American Psycho

American Psycho centres on a man named Patrick Bateman. He is a successful wealthy businessman with the expensive suits, the perfect body, and the cleanest apartment. He looks perfect. Except he has one small flaw. He is a psychopath by night. He lures his victims to his house and then brutally murders them, with an axe, a chainsaw, a nail gun, whatever he can get his hands on.

We get a feeling from the start that he isn't completely sane, his OCD is a big giveaway. quite ironic how everything has to be in its place no matter what, yet at night he obliterates it all in a second. Like a big release.

The business card seems to symbolise wealth and power, and it stirs the craziness in Bateman, encouraging him to murder the men whose cards are better than his.

As the film goes on, the more insane Bateman becomes, until he completely cracks and goes on a mass murder rampage, ending in a frantic call to his lawyer in which he says he doesn't think he can get away with it anymore. It ends with Bateman having a conversation with his lawyer over the message he left him. His lawyer doesn't believe him, mistaking Bateman for another client of his, and calling Bateman a coward. The ending is quite ambiguous, did he kill all those people or was it all his imagination?

I thought it was a good film, Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman was brilliant, he was arrogant, greedy and completely psychotic all in one go. Bale is notorious for his method acting and as his character is well built he visited the gym everyday to bulk up, which is clearly apparent in the film.

I noticed before he was going to do something brutal, Bateman would always make a speech about music. Phil Collins and Genesis, Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis and the News. It builds up the tension, till it explodes with lots of blood and guts, which happens a lot. The camera never lets you look directly at the murdering or even the mutilated body after, just a pool of bloody or a part of the body that hasn't been hacked at. Your imagination does the rest for you.

Inglourious Basterds

I went to the cinema at the weekend to see Inglourious Basterds. It was a typical Tarantino film, full of violence, good music, and a mix of genres.

The story centres on the Inglourious Basterds, a group of Jews from different countries, joining forces to teach the Nazi's a lesson. The group is led by St. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt).

It begins in the French countryside. Col. Hans Landa, the Jew Hunter, has come to visit the house of a dairy farmer and his daughters to question him on the whereabouts of a missing Jewish dairy farming family. Hans eventually finds them and has them murdered, but one, Shosanna Dreyfus, escapes. We come back to her a few years on, and she is living under the name Emmanuelle Mimieux. She owns a cinema, La Gamaar. Whilst working one day, a German soldier, Frederick Zoller, approaches, clearly attracted to this french girl. He reveals he is a war hero and his actions are to be celebrated in the war movie Stolz der Nation (Nations Pride). Shosanna being a secret Jew is sickened by ths fact and tells Zoller she has no interest in him, but he persists. One thing leads to another and she is suddenly holding a huge premier for the film at her cinema, and the highest leaders, Hitler, Goebbels, Bormann and Goring will be attending. Shosanna realises this is a great opportunity, and starts plotting the murder of the Nazi's.
Meanwhile, the Basterds are causing mayhem, scalping Nazi's and making themselves known. The British find out about the film premiere and join forces with the Basterds to blow up the cinema, with the help of an insider, the glamourous actress Bridget von Hammersmark. The first meeting with von Hammersmark leads to chaos and she leaves with an injured leg. The rest aren't so lucky.
The night of the film premiere arrives and both plots to kill the Nazi's are in place, but Col. Hans Landa catches on the the Basterds plans and tries to deal with them in his own way. I don't want to reveal the ending but it is definitely one not to be missed.

The acting in my opinion was superb, the best being Colonel Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz. He was charming, yet creepy and incredibly terrifying. He could change the atmosphere at the click of his fingers. Aldo Raine was another stand out character, he kept the mood light hearted when they were ripping the scalps off Nazi's, and his Italian accent was by far the best I've ever heard.
I read it received mixed reviews. The Guardian gave it a 1/5.

"It is achtung-achtung-ach-mein-Gott atrocious. It isn't funny; it isn't exciting; it isn't a realistic war movie, yet neither is it an entertaining genre spoof or a clever counterfactual wartime yarn. It isn't emotionally involving or deliciously ironic or a brilliant tissue of trash-pop references. Nothing like that."

On the otherhand The Independent gave it a 4/5. I think it isn't meant to be your run of the mill war movie, its not meant to be realistic, its a Tarantino film, and as we all know he has his own style of film making. The storyline bears no resemblance to what happened in real life, and if it did, I definitely didn't pay attention in my history lessons at school!
I thought it was interesting how the film was split up into chapters. I also liked how most of the film was either in French or German, which I didn't expect, but it made the film seem more genuine. Tarantino's use of German and French actors was definitely a wise choice. The idea of Americans playing those roles is just wrong!
Overall I liked it, it was entertaining, funny, sad, disgusting, and it pretty much kept my attention throughout. There were some long talking parts, but these all usually led up to something big and explosive. Another recommended film!

Woody Allen

During the past couple of weeks I've managed to watch 2 Woody Allen films, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Match Point, which was on BBC1 the other day.

If you don't want to read about any spoilers dont read the blue paragraphs!


Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a story about 2 women, Vicky and Cristina, who travel to Barcelona for the summer. Cristina is an adventurous free spirit with no certain direction in her life, whereas Vicky is more cautious, studying Catalan Identity, and engaged to Doug.
During an outing they meet Juan Antonio. He invites them to spend the weekend with him. They accept and travel to the town of Oviedo. Whilst there, Cristina and Juan get cosy but she falls ill and has to spend the weekend in bed. This leaves Juan entertaining Vicky, who after a night of wining and dining, end it together in bed. Vicky never tells Cristina, and leaves them to meet with Doug and plan a Spanish wedding.
Cristina and Juan eventually move in together, and all is fine until one day Juan receives a call about temperamental ex wife, Maria Elena, who just tried to kill herself. Maria moves in and the three of them eventually form a polygamous relationship. Vicky is secretly jealous of their unconventional love and realises she still has feelings for Juan. The three are happy until Cristina becomes unsettled and decides to move away. Both are upset and once Cristina is gone, they split up too.
Vicky decides to have lunch at Juan's house where she falls for him when suddenly Maria Elena charges in with a gun and accidentally shoots Vicky in the hand. Vicky understandably gets angry and leaves.
Once Cristina comes back, Vicky confesses all to her and they get back to the lives they had before Barcelona.


What I found a bit strange straight away was the narrator. It sounded a lot like an audiobook which I eventually got used to. It was an interesting story and I thought Penelope Cruz as Maria Elena was excellent. I don't think I've seen a Woody Allen film before and this is what I thought his films would be like, a bit quirky and unconventional. Overall I would recommend it.

Match Point was completely different. The story centres on Chris Wilson, an ex-pro tennis player who falls for the mysterious Nola who just so happens to be his friends, Tom, fiancee. Funnily enough Chris gets engaged to Toms sister Chloe, but has a moment with Nola during a family weekend away. Chris wants things to go further but Nola refuses. Chris and Nola eventually get married. Meanwhile Tom and Nola split up. Chris has the urge to find Nola and one day bumps into her in the Tate Modern. They begin a passionate affair, but things get complicated and Chris has to choose between Chloe and her family fortune, and the struggling actress Nola.

After seeing Vicky Cristina Barcelona, I found this film was a lot more serious, gritty, and in my opinion not quite as good but it was still watchable. It didn't have the quirks of VCB although it did make me want to see what happened next.

As I have only seen two Woody Allen films to my knowledge, I can only compare these, so I don't know whether he has a certain style like a lot of directors, or if he tends to mix it up a bit. I also noticed Scarlett Johansson was in both films, and I read she was in another one too. I wonder if she was/is Woody Allen's muse?